Bush administration starts selling US-Indian nuclear deal to Congress
(AP)
Updated: 2006-03-07 13:30

The administration of President George W. Bush has started an aggressive campaign to persuade skeptical lawmakers of the merits of a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with India.

Nicholas Burns, a top State Department official, told an audience at the Heritage Foundation on Monday that a "very intensive debate" looms on the accord he helped to settle last week during Bush's visit to India.

"We're prepared for that debate," Burns said at the conservative think tank. "We will advise the Congress that it is our very clear judgment that this is a good deal for the United States as well as for India."

Burns said top officials, including Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, would spend coming weeks briefing lawmakers and appearing at congressional hearings.

On Tuesday, the White House planned to meet with lawmakers to discuss the agreement. Richard Boucher, the newly appointed assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, was to discuss the deal Thursday at a Washington think tank.

Burns said that "on a deal as esoteric, frankly, and as complex as this one, members of the Senate and House are going to want to see the details and a full explanation, and we intend to give them."

While Bush's Republican Party controls both chambers of Congress, lawmakers have shown a growing tendency to break from Bush's leadership as his popularity declines and congressional elections approach in November.

The administration will be working to persuade a Congress that was cautious, at best, in reacting to news that Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had agreed to a deal.

Some critics worried the Bush plan could allow rogue countries to build nuclear weapons programs with imported civilian nuclear technology. Lawmakers from both political parties said they would wait to hear from the Bush administration before deciding whether to vote for nuclear shipments to India.

Congress must either change or approve an exception to the US law that bans civilian nuclear cooperation with countries that have not submitted to full nuclear inspections. India has never signed the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Burns gave a preview Monday of the administration's case supporting the India deal. He said it brings "India into the nonproliferation mainstream" by increasing international inspections and putting UN safeguards on India's civilian nuclear power industry.

India has committed to place 14 of 22 reactors under international safeguards, Burns said - and has pledged to put its future civilian reactors under permanent safeguards.

The agreement, he said, "will allow India for the very first time in the life of its nuclear program ... to be able to submit itself in a transparent way for international inspections. We think this is a major, major gain for the nonproliferation community."