NEW DELHI, Aug 12: A landmark civilian nuclear deal between India and the United States will face dissent in the US Congress but will ultimately be approved, an influential senator said on Sunday.

The pact, finalised last month, will be closely scrutinised for allowing India to reprocess used nuclear fuel, for the impact of any future nuclear test by India on the deal and for New Delhi's relations with Iran, Senator Joe Lieberman said.

“There will be debate, there will be some dissent,” Lieberman told reporters. “In the end, it will be accepted and endorsed by strong majority in both houses of Congress because it is so clearly in the interests of the United States.

“It's a good agreement, it's a honourable agreement,” said the independent lawmaker from Connecticut, the 2000 Democratic vice-presidential nominee known to be close to the White House.

The nuclear deal aims to give India access to US nuclear fuel and equipment for the first time in 30 years to help meet its soaring energy needs, even though it has stayed out of non-proliferation pacts and tested nuclear weapons.

First agreed in principle two years ago, it is seen as a symbol of the new strategic relationship between the once-estranged democracies. The framework deal was approved by the US Congress last December, but the detailed pact that governs nuclear trade between the two has to get Congress backing, and only after India secures other international nuclear approvals.

Lieberman, who is a senior member of several Congressional committees, said he expected the pact to come up for legislative approval before the end of 2007.

The deal has been opposed by critics in both countries who say their governments are making too many compromises in their eagerness to seal it.

Although the pact does not mention India's relations with its old friend Iran, these would loom large over Congress due to the “fanaticism of the regime” in Tehran, its “direct threats” to Washington and its “support” for anti-American forces in Iraq, Lieberman said. “No one can reasonably or fairly ask India to disengage from Iran, no matter how negatively we feel about the government, because some of our close allies in Europe and Asia, including Japan, have diplomatic relations with Iran,” he said.—Reuters