US Congress to scrutinize nuclear pact with India

WASHINGTON, Saturday (AFP) - The US Congress has to determine whether an operational agreement of a landmark US-India nuclear deal is legal, the head of an influential House of Representatives panel said Friday. The statement by Tom Lantos, the Democratic chairman of the House committee on foreign affairs, came as two US arms experts warned that the civilian nuclear agreement was filled with “loopholes” that could be exploited by India to bolster its nuclear weapons programme.

The agreement has been approved by the two governments after exhaustive discussions spanning two years, but US law requires mandatory Congress approval of the pact, which was transmitted to lawmakers and made public Friday. US legislators last year approved in principle the Henry Hyde Act allowing export of civilian nuclear fuel and technology to India in a move to reverse decades of sanctions imposed after India's nuclear tests.

US President George W. Bush signed it into law in December. Lantos said Congress needed “to determine whether the new agreement conforms to the Henry Hyde Act, and thereby supports US foreign policy and nonproliferation goals.

“I welcome the opportunity to review the civilian nuclear cooperation deal in detail,” he said in a statement. Daryl Kimball, executive director of the US Arms Control Association, and Fred McGoldrick, a former senior official with the US Department of Energy, called for a closing of “the proliferation loopholes that plague” the agreement.

As Congress is about to go on its summer recess up to early September, it would probably take time for lawmakers to weigh it and come to a consensus, Congressional aides said.“There is no agenda at the moment. Congress simply would have to take everything into account and ensure that the agreement is in line with what Congress approved,” Lantos's spokeswoman Lynne Weil told AFP.

Some US legislators have expressed skepticism over the operating agreement but Bush, a Republican, said he looked forward to working with the Democratic-controlled Congress to implement the deal.