India nuke pact hailed

NEW DELHI — President Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India announced here Thursday that they had reached agreement on putting into effect what Bush called a "historic" nuclear pact that would help India satisfy its enormous civilian energy needs while allowing it to continue to develop nuclear weapons.

At the same time, Bush said that he was going forward with a trip to Pakistan today to meet with its president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, despite a bombing Thursday morning outside a Marriott hotel and the U.S. Consulate in Karachi. The bombing, a suspected suicide attack, left four dead, including an American diplomat. Nida Emmons, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, would not identify the diplomat and his driver, who worked for the consulate.

"Terrorists and killers are not going to prevent me from going to Pakistan," Bush said at a joint news conference with Singh. "My trip to Pakistan is an important trip. It's important to talk with President Musharraf about continuing our fight against terrorists. After all, he has had a direct stake in this fight — four times the terrorists have tried to kill him."

Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, is about 1,000 miles north of Karachi, but security is expected to be extraordinarily tight during Bush's visit. The White House has not announced at what time or how he will arrive in the country. President Bill Clinton arrived in Islamabad on an unmarked military plane in 2000.

In New Delhi, American and Indian negotiators working through the night reached agreement on implementing the nuclear deal when the United States accepted an Indian plan to separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities. Under the initial nuclear agreement that both countries announced in Washington in July 2005, India would be allowed to buy nuclear fuel and reactor components from the United States and other countries as long as it worked out a separation plan.

In the plan announced Thursday, India agreed to permanently classify 14 of its 22 nuclear power reactors as civilian facilities, meaning those reactors will be subject for the first time to international inspections.

The other reactors, as well as a prototype fast-breeder reactor in the early stages of development, will remain as military facilities and not be subject to inspections. India also retained the right to develop future fast-breeder reactors for its military program, a provision certain to upset critics of the deal. In addition, India said it was guaranteed a permanent supply of nuclear fuel.