Indo-US N-deal legislative work may be over soon

Washington, Jul 13: The legislative procedure pertaining to the India-US civilian nuclear deal is expected to be completed by the two chambers of the US Congress before it breaks for vacation in August, the US Ambassador to India David Mulford said.

Now that the two Congressional panels had passed the legislation with a positive bipartisan vote, Mr Mulford said, he was convinced that ''the momentum is strong and it is important to keep up the process'' and ensure it gets completed.

''With the right will, flexibility, energy on both sides this is a deal that can be completed. It is do-able and that is the most important thing,'' he added.

The US House of Representatives, International Relations Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had endorsed their own versions of enabling legislation with an overwhelming majority and sizeable bipartisan support two weeks ago. It will now go before the Senate and the House for floor votes.

Mr Mulford is in Washington to work on Congressmen to ''reconsider'' certain sections of the draft legislation that India is still uncomfortable with.

These include the end-user verification clause, prohibition on selling enrichment and reprocessing technology and the Iran rider in the House version.

Addressing a press conference at the US Chamber of Commerce here yesterday, he said he would address those issues ''bearing in mind that the US Congress is a sovereign body, a branch of our government and they have their own ideas about these things and therefore we have to work the process through just as one would in India which is also a democracy.'' The US Ambassador to India said the next phase is to get floor votes that would result in the change of law followed by the completion of the 123 negotiations on the bilateral agreement.

The legislation seeks to modify the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to give a specific waiver to India, allowing the flow of civilian nuclear technology under the US-India nuke deal.

He said 60 per cent of the negotiations on 123 cooperation agreement has already been accomplished and he expected the bulk of those issues being resolved in the next round. ''A lot of progress has been made," Mr Mulford said, stressing that this 123 agreement would ''give life'' to the changes in American laws to allow for civilian nuclear cooperation.

Once this 123 accord was clinched then it would have to be put to vote in Congress again, Mr Mulford said, adding that both Houses could only vote ''yes'' or ''no'' - they would have no power to alter the text of the agreement.

''So I do not think its impossible that we would be in a position to finish the 123 agreement within a period of weeks and move forward to the next phase. There is also the NSG and the IAEA and those initiatives have to be completed as well and all these things have to move together, before the deal becomes effective.'' At the outset, Mr Mulford creticised the Mumbai blasts and reiterated the US promise to fight with India against global terrorism. ''Wherever it occurs terrorism is unacceptable and where innocent people are killed it is utterly unacceptable,'' he remarked.

He expressed his condolences to the people who lost their relatives and also admired the people of Mumbai for their resilience.

UNI