WASHINGTON, March 3: A leading Democratic lawmaker has vowed to torpedo the US-India nuclear deal, saying it has ‘blown a hole’ in the world’s nuclear rules, while Republican lawmakers provisionally welcomed the agreement.

“This nuclear deal has been described as a historic deal — but it is in fact a historic failure of this president to tackle the real nuclear threats that we face,” Representative Edward Markey, co-chair of the Bipartisan Task Force on Non-proliferation, said on Thursday.

“With one simple move the president has blown a hole in the nuclear rules that the entire world has been playing by and broken his own word to assure that we will not ship nuclear technology to India without the proper safeguards,” said the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Comm-ittee.

The nuclear agreement, which places 14 of India’s 22 nuclear power reactors under international safeguards, was the highlight of Mr Bush’s three-day trip to India.

It commits Washington to seek approval from the US Congress and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group to share their civilian nuclear technology with New Delhi.

But Mr Markey said there was bipartisan opposition in Congress to the deal and vowed to block it.—AFP