India given U.S. nod on nuclear power

WASHINGTON — President Bush reached out to India on Monday and brought it a step closer to joining the world's nuclear club, striking an agreement with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to let India secure international help for its civilian nuclear reactors while retaining its nuclear weapons.

The agreement would remove a ban on civilian nuclear technology sales to India in place since the 1970s, and with it a decades-long source of antagonism between the two countries.

India would obtain nuclear fuel and reactor components from the United States and other countries, and in return allow international inspections and safeguards on its civilian nuclear program, and refrain from further weapons tests and from transferring arms technology to other countries.

But beyond that, the agreement would bring a significant boost in India's international status: from that of pariah, since it first tested a nuclear weapon in 1974 and refused to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, to something close to acceptance as a nuclear-armed state.

For the Bush administration, the agreement was a major step forward in what has been a campaign since 2001 to improve ties with India, in part as a counterweight to China. That effort was disrupted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the American decision to provide military aid to Pakistan, India's longtime rival.

"We are looking at complete removal of the restrictive technology regimes that India has been subjected to for decades," Shyam Saran, the Indian foreign secretary, said in an interview. "What this agreement says is that we are willing to assume the same responsibilities and practices — no more and no less — as other nuclear states."

It was not immediately clear how difficult it would be for the United States to persuade Congress, as well as other major nuclear weapons states — Britain, France, China and Russia — to go along with this change of status for India.