August 22, 2008	Friday	Sha'aban 19, 1429

VIENNA, Aug 21: Nuclear supplier nations on Thursday proposed conditions for lifting a global ban on fuel and technology exports to India, a step required to implement a US-India nuclear cooperation deal.

A green light from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group is needed for the deal, which has drawn criticism because India has never joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to proceed to the US Congress for final ratification.

Diplomats said up to 20 NSG states tabled conditions for India to do business with the cartel despite its repeated calls for a “clean, unconditional” exemption from rules barring trade with an NPT outsider that has tested nuclear bombs.

“There were proposals on practically every paragraph,” a European diplomat said, referring to a US waiver draft that some delegations and disarmament critics had said was too vague to ensure NPT principles would be safeguarded.

Diplomats said conditions included full-scope UN inspections of Indian nuclear sites, no more test explosions and periodic reviews of Indian compliance with the exemption, which would be the first in the NSG’s 33-year history.

An NSG waiver granting India access to nuclear fuel and technology markets would end an embargo imposed after it test-detonated a nuclear bomb in 1974 with Canadian technology imported ostensibly to develop peaceful atomic energy.

New Delhi is one of only three nations not to have signed the non-proliferation treaty. It conducted another nuclear test in 1998 but is now observing a voluntary moratorium.

Special US legislation enacted in 2006, known as the Hyde Act, established conditions for US nuclear commerce with India, including no more test explosions.

The Hyde Act by itself made it unlikely that the US waiver text under discussion at the two-day meeting would pass without amendments, diplomats said. A second meeting is expected in early September to decide the extent of conditions.

“Tomorrow we will try to narrow down the focus to how the text can be tightened up to satisfy all concerns. We (envisage) another meeting in early September,” said another EU diplomat.

“But it’s fair to say the issues raised follow closely in line with what is in the Hyde Act,” he told Reuters.