WASHINGTON, Oct 28: The United States should modify its non-proliferation laws in a way that allows all three non-NPT nuclear states – India, Pakistan and Israel – to receive nuclear cooperation from Washington, says a senior American expert.

Robert J. Einhorn, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, also urged the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group to amend its guidelines accordingly.

In a testimony before the House International Relations Committee earlier this week, Mr Einhorn advised the Bush administration not to make a country-specific exception for enabling nuclear cooperation with India.

The committee is hearing the Bush administration’s proposal to share civilian nuclear technology with India under an agreement signed on July 18 during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the White House.

The US administration has suggested that one option to achieve this goal would be to leave the general rules that forbid US cooperation with the states that have not yet signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty in place but waive their application for India as “a special case.”

The administration argues that India has earned an exception from these restrictions as “a responsible state with advanced nuclear technology.”

Mr Einhorn, however, argued that such an option “would accentuate concerns that the US is acting selectively on the basis of foreign policy considerations rather than on the bases of objective factors related to non-proliferation.”

He also pointed out that changing the NSG guidelines required a consensus and some NSG members, such as China, might resist a country-specific approach and press for permitting nuclear cooperation with other non-parties to the NPT with whom they are friendly, especially Pakistan.

To avoid the pitfalls of making a country-specific exception without opening the door to nuclear proliferation, he urged the Bush administration to “propose modifications of US law and the NSG guidelines that would permit nuclear cooperation with any state not party to the NPT that meets certain criteria of responsible nuclear behaviour.”