WASHINGTON, Sept 2: The United States has lifted curbs on exports to six Indian civilian nuclear and space units, a State Department official told Dawn in Washington on Friday.

“This (move) is linked to the Next Step in Strategic Partnership (agreement) and not to the Indo-US nuclear deal,” the official said.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed both the agreements during his July 18-20 visit to Washington.

The State Department official said that the NSSP agreement has two aspects: the first deals with the licensing for exports of hi-tech material to entities in India and changes in the regulations of general licensing practices. The second deals with the removal of Indian entities from a list of facilities that cannot receive US assistance because of proliferation concerns.

The official said that while six Indian entities have been removed from this list, exports to some other Indian nuclear and hi-tech facilities were still forbidden.

“There has been a misperception in India that this might be a part of the new initiative for nuclear cooperation between the US and India. This is not,” the official said.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement the US embassy in New Delhi said that the scrapping of the restrictions will make it easier for India to buy nuclear fuel and reactor components for civilian nuclear energy needs.

‘India is meeting the standards that major nuclear powers are meeting,’ US Ambassador David Mulford told The Hindu newspaper.

‘We need to regularize relationships and they need to assume the same duties and ... have roughly the same benefits even though they are not signatories to the NPT (nuclear non-proliferation treaty),’ he said.

‘India is a country that needs for its development civil nuclear energy. It is a democracy, it has a long and distinguished history as a non-proliferator,’ said Mr Mulford. ‘That does not apply in any way to North Korea, Iran, or even to Israel or Pakistan.’

On July 18, US President George W Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met at the White House and announced plans to cooperate on developing India’s civilian nuclear energy program.

The decision is a departure from the US prohibition of nuclear assistance to countries that do not allow international monitoring of all atomic facilities, as required by the NPT.

‘India can truly be distinguished as a unique case without violating or compromising our own commitment to non-proliferation,’ Mr Mulford said.

The US placed sanctions on India after its nuclear tests in 1998, restricting the country’s access to nuclear reactors and fuel by the international community. But Washington began easing the restrictions in return for New Delhi’s cooperation in Mr Bush’s global war against terrorism launched after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks. In Jan 2004 the two countries announced an agreement which paved the way for the transfer of sensitive technology in areas such as nuclear energy. The US embassy statement said the six Indian nuclear and space facilities were taken off the US Department of Commerce ‘entity list’ as of Aug 30.

Only three of the six facilities, including one under construction, will be under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, the statement said.

In May, the Indian parliament passed legislation banning the transfer of missile technology to non-nuclear states.