A bill that would allow US civilian nuclear trade with India has been finalised by lawmakers either removing or diluting the language of several provisions objected to by New Delhi, setting the stage for a law to implement the landmark deal reached between the two countries.The "Henry J Hyde United States India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006" is expected to be passed in the House of Representatives and soon thereafter in the Senate today before the Congress adjourns for the year to meet next month.Once approved by the Congress and sent to White House, word is that US President George W Bush is expected to sign it into law on Monday.The breakthrough came late last night when the nine conferees of the House and Senate signed off on the Conference Report which was then formally announced in the House Chamber.There have been "substantial" changes in the language and in a manner that addressed many of the key concerns of India, but not all, remarked a source pointing to a number of changes in the conference report that take into account apprehensions of New Delhi on issues including end-use monitoring & sequencing and Iran. Updated at 0830 hrs:Indicating that some of India's key concerns will be addressed in the final bill on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, the US on Thursday said it intends to meet all commitments including assured fuel supplies to India."We anticipate a very supportive bill," Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said yesterday at a joint press conference with Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon after day-long talks on a wide range of issues.He was confident that the final bill will be through in the Congressional process in the next 36 hours and will be within the parameters of the agreement reached between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W Bush on July 18 last year. "The US intends to meet all the commitments that we made to the Indian Government on July 18, 2005 and March 2, 2006 that includes fuel assurances," he said."We believe this bill will be within the parametres of these agreements. Therefore, we will welcome the bill and go ahead and implement it," he said adding that the two sides were now at an "easier stage".He said the most difficult part of this process was the negotiations in the last 18 months. "We had tough issues to deal with... There has never been a deal quite like this".Burns was responding to a question whether the US will uphold the commitments made by President George W Bush of assured fuel supplies to Indian reactors alongwith a strategic reserve.
