Indian PM still hopeful of nuclear deal with US

Indian PM still hopeful of nuclear deal with US

by Staff Writers
New Delhi (AFP) Oct 19, 2007
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told reporters Thursday he has not given up hope of implementing a controversial nuclear deal with the United States opposed by his party's key allies.

The deal was widely viewed as dead after Singh told US President George W. Bush on Monday he was struggling to implement it, amid stiff opposition from the government's communist allies.

"I have mentioned that there are some difficulties. We are working in a coalition. We have to find a way out and I have not given up hope," the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency quoted Singh as saying.

"We are trying to evolve a national consensus. I hope that the process which emerges as a result of wide-ranging negotiations with our coalition partners will enable us to move forward."

The PTI said the US Ambassador to India had conveyed Washington's displeasure over the deal's now uncertain future to Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon Thursday.

Under the agreement, the US was to provide India with nuclear fuel and technology even though nuclear-armed India has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

In exchange, India was to place selected nuclear facilities under international safeguards, including inspections, negotiated with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Left-wing parties say that traditionally non-aligned India is getting too close to Washington and that the deal may hamper the future development of the country's nuclear weapons programme.