NEW DELHI, March 7: India will open 14 of its 22 nuclear plants for international inspections by 2014 as part of a landmark civilian nuclear cooperation deal with the United States, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday.

Under the deal, India, which tested nuclear weapons in 1998, has agreed to separate its civilian and military nuclear programmes, allowing international scrutiny for the bulk of its power stations.

“We are preparing a list of 14 reactors that would be offered for (international) safeguards between 2006 and 2014,” Dr Singh told parliament. “The choice of specific nuclear reactors... is an Indian decision,” he said.

Dr Singh’s statement in parliament came less than a week after he and visiting US President George W. Bush sealed the controversial agreement which aims to help India boost its nuclear power capacity to meet its soaring energy needs.

Dr Singh said New Delhi had also agreed to international inspections of its future civilian atomic plants.

But he stressed that the agreement ‘does not cover the experimental fast breeder reactor programme nor would it cap the nuclear weapons programme.’

India wants to guard the fast breeder programme from international scrutiny, saying scientists plan to use it for research in new areas of nuclear technology.—Reuters