US states its position on the nuke deal with India

Washington, July 26: The Bush administration has made its stand clear on the US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, saying, ''we're not going to agree to anything that is not in the United States' national interests''.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack made this observation yesterday when his attention was drawn to reports, suggesting that the US caved in during the negotiations with the Indians because it needed an agreement.

McCormack, in response, said that, ''in terms, quote, needing agreements, we are certainly not going to do anything that we believe is harmful to either our national security or foreign policy interests.'' ''As for the agreement with the Indians on the so-called 123 Agreement, we had a statement out last Friday. There are some continuing discussions regarding that agreement,'' he said.

McCormack said, ''I would expect within the next couple of days we will have more to say about it.'' ''But at the end of the day, what we produce and what we may agree to is going to be something that is in the interests of this country from a variety of different perspectives, from helping to prevent further spread of nuclear technologies and nuclear materials and also in realising a different kind of relationship with India that President Bush has really made an important priority for the administration going all the way back to the first term,'' McCormack said.

A correspondent wanted to know whether one of the US objectives was to prevent India from conducting nuclear tests in future, the Spokesman said, ''In the fullness of time, we will have more to say about the details of what we've been talking to the Indians about [the agreement]. At this point, I'm not at liberty to get into nuclearany more of the details.'' When asked whether allowing India to reprocess spent nuclear fuel under International Atomic Energy (IAEA) guidelines was in accordance with US national interests, he parried the question, saying, "again, same answer applies.''

UNI