NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON, 27 July 2006 — India said yesterday it would make no compromises on a landmark deal with the United States to get civil nuclear technology amid criticism that the pact could endanger national security. “We will never compromise in a manner which is inconsistent with the provisions of the joint statement” signed with the United States in July 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told Parliament.

Earlier, India’s Junior Foreign Affairs Minister Anand Sharma told Parliament that India would accept “no fresh obligations” or “new conditions” to win approval of the deal from the US Congress. The government’s assurances came amid recent Indian news reports that Washington was planning to impose new conditions on the deal that would include an annual review of India’s nuclear policies by US lawmakers.

India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has said it fears the agreement would make the country “perpetually dependent” on the United States for all initiatives in the application of nuclear energy. The government’s Communist allies have also expressed concern, saying they fear it could bind India to supporting US foreign policy and jeopardize the country’s security interests.

The US House of Representatives was poised yesterday to take up the agreement, which supporters say will form the cornerstone of a closely-knit partnership between the two powers. Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress have expressed strong support for the bill, under which the United States will aid the development of civil nuclear power in India in return for New Delhi placing its civil nuclear facilities under International Atomic Energy Agency inspections.

The agreement stipulates that India’s nuclear weapons sites would remain off-limits for inspection. Indian and US supporters of the agreement have praised it as a sign of a geopolitical re-alliance following the Cold War, one which would allow India to jump-start its quest for alternate energy sources as its economy booms.

Indian lawmakers heatedly debated the deal, voicing doubts over whether the agreement could choke the country’s nuclear program. Lawmakers questioned new conditions that some US lawmakers were trying to attach to the agreement, initialed by Manmohan and US President George W. Bush.

Meanwhile, India has signed a UN-sponsored global treaty on preventing nuclear terrorism, an official said yesterday. India signed the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism on Monday at the United Nations, said Navtej Sarna, a spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs. The treaty, which makes it a crime to damage a nuclear facility or possess radioactive material or weapons with the intention of committing a terrorist act, was adopted by the UN General Assembly in April 2005.

—Additional input from Agencies