WASHINGTON, March 24 (UPI) -- The Bush administration wants the nuclear agreement with India approved as it is but the U.S. Congress may insert some restrictions on the deal.
That is because if Congress OKs the agreement, signed by President George Bush during his recent India visit, without changes, it might encourage some nations committed to non-proliferation to rethink their positions, reports the Christian Science Monitor. But the administration says any changes could cause the deal to unravel.
"It's not going to come out the same way it went in," Daryl Kimball with the Arms Control Association in Washington told the Monitor.
The agreement calls for the United States to provide nuclear fuel to help India increase its electric power production in exchange for India separating its civilian and military nuclear programs in the next eight years. The civilian program would be subject to international inspections, although India has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Military nuclear facilities and fast-breeder reactor programs would not be subject to inspections.
The administration is promoting the agreement because India's civilian reactors will lessen its demand for oil, thereby lessening pressure on oil prices.
While the Bush administration says India has been a responsible nuclear nation, U.S. lawmakers are concerned the deal will reward a nation that has snubbed world non-proliferation efforts, the Monitor reported.
