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WASHINGTON: A key US-India nuclear deal could be cleared by US Congress before year-end despite a drubbing by President George W. Bush's Republican party in legislative elections.
Bush and Harry Reid, the Senate leader of the Democratic Party, agreed Wednesday to give the accord top priority during a brief session of Congress next week before it adjourns for the year.
A failure to pass the deal in 2006 would mean that the newly seated Congress next year will have to start from scratch in considering the accord, which aims to lift a three-decade US ban on supply of nuclear fuel and equipment to energy-hungry India.
Bush, speaking at a White House news conference after Democrats won control of the House of Representatives and came close to taking over the Senate, said that he wanted the nuclear pact and a deal granting Vietnam normal trading status to be cleared during the “lame duck” session.
“I'm trying to get the Indian deal done, the Vietnam deal done, and the budgets done,” he said.
Bush is anxious to get the bill granting “permanent normal trade relations” (PNTR) status to Vietnam passed before he visits Hanoi for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on November 18-19.
Reid said: “I think it is important we do something with the Indian nuclear agreement.
“India is the largest democracy in the world. We want to work with them, and it is important we move along the lines,” he said, indicating the Democrats would not impose any major roadblocks to the deal.
The agreement, clinched during Bush's March visit to India as the centerpiece of a bilateral strategic relationship, is a controversial component of the Republican administration's foreign policy.
Under the proposal, India, a non-signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), would be allowed access to long-denied civilian nuclear technology in return for placing its atomic reactors under international safeguards.
As Congress has to amend the US Atomic Energy Act, which currently prohibits nuclear sales to non-NPT signatories, some legislators want to first study the international safeguards being negotiated between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global nuclear watchdog.
The safeguards would be incorporated together with other key technical details in another bilateral agreement, which the lawmakers also wanted to study before endorsing the deal.
US weapons experts also have warned that forging a civilian nuclear agreement with non-NPT member India would not only make it harder to enforce rules against nuclear renegades Iran and North Korea, but also set a dangerous precedent for other countries with nuclear ambitions.
The US House of Representatives gave its thumbs-up to the deal in July but a vote had been delayed in the Republican-controlled Senate ahead of Tuesday's legislative elections.
Backers of the deal were worried there would be little time left for the accord to be considered by the Senate, which has to grapple with nearly a dozen unfinished spending bills.
While Reid agreed with Bush that the Indian nuclear agreement had to be given priority, he was silent about the trade deal with Vietnam.
Legislation to grant Vietnam PNTR status has been held up in the US Congress for months. In its absence, US businesses will not benefit from the full terms of the country's WTO liberalisation.
Some analysts had said that the Democratic election victory could leave Vietnam's trading status more firmly on the back burner due to human rights and protectionism concerns.
