WASHINGTON, Aug 26: India has hired a Washington lobbying heavyweight, Barbour Griffith & Rogers International, days before the fall session of the US Congress which is expected to debate the Indo-US nuclear deal, diplomatic sources told Dawn.

The company is headed by Americas former ambassador to New Delhi, Robert Blackwill, who was hired as BG&Rs president in November last year.

Mr Blackwill is one of India’s staunchest supporters in Washington and is believed to have played a key role in arranging the nuclear deal signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the White House on July 18.

The BG&R would start lobbying for India as early as next month when US lawmakers return to Washington after the summer break. The US-India nuclear deal would be one of the major issues Congress is expected to tackle during the fall session.

US laws prohibit nuclear assistance to any country that does not accept international monitoring of its nuclear facilities. India has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which requires such oversight, conducted its first nuclear detonation in 1974 and continues to refuse international inspection of its military nuclear facilities.

Such laws will need to be amended for implementing the deal, which would enable India to receive nuclear assistance without signing the NPT.

Powerful lobbies within Congress have begun to voice concerns over the deal, which they say will weaken international efforts to discourage nations from making nuclear weapons.

The Congressional Research Service, in a study prepared for lawmakers, warned that the agreement on civilian nuclear energy cooperation will contravene the control guidelines laid down by the Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Recently, members of the House Energy Conference Committee also approved a measure to prevent the export of nuclear technology to countries such as India which are not party to the NPT and have detonated a nuclear device.

Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Edward Markey, who authored the amendment, said: Why should the United States sell controlled nuclear goods to India? India is not a member state of the NPT and lacks full-scope safeguards required by the International Atomic Energy Agency for non-nuclear weapons states to receive nuclear supply materials.

He added: We cannot play favourites, breaking the rules of the NPT, to favour one nation at the risk of undermining critical international treaties on nuclear weapons.

India would expect BG&R to counter such anti-proliferation lobbies both in and outside Congress. The firm has vast lobbying experience and its clients include Taiwan, which requires it to counter the influence of a powerful nation like China.

Yet the Indian community in the US acknowledges that countering anti-proliferation lobbies will not be an easy task.

It is evident from the rumblings heard on Capitol Hill that the agreement will face serious opposition from both sides of the aisle.

It is almost a certainty that the minority Democrats will oppose the agreement more in unison than the Republicans, some of whom can be neutralized by the Bush administration.