NEW DELHI, Aug 18: A top US official has said a controversial nuclear pact with New Delhi cannot be renegotiated amid demands from Indian critics for a radical reworking of the deal.

“We cannot renegotiate it because the agreement is done. Neither government wishes it to be renegotiated because it is now complete,” US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns told Outlook magazine in an interview published on the weekend.

The agreement will allow New Delhi to buy atomic fuel, technology and plants even though it is not party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but critics say it will limit India’s strategic options.

The agreement – reached last month after nearly two years of negotiations – has drawn heavy and widespread criticism from opposition parties and the government’s communist allies.

Burns declined to comment on criticism by the communists, whose support is crucial to the survival of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Congress-led coalition government in parliament.

“So I don’t have any particular message for them except to say that in the 21st Century we have seen the global balance of forces is shifting,” said Burns, the chief US negotiator of the deal.

“That it is in the common interest of India and the US to be partners, certainly on the effort to bring peace and stability in South and East Asia.” —AFP