Nuke deal faces China wall

Apart from Democrat senators and Congressmen, such as Ed Markey, the Indo-US agreement on civilian nuclear energy has found another critic.

China, which was termed as the reason for India's nuclear tests, today demanded that it sign the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and begin dismantling its nuclear weapons.

India should sign the NPT and also dismantle its nuclear weapons, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang was quoted as saying by a news agency.

"As a signatory country, China hopes the non-signatory countries will join it as soon as possible as non-nuclear weapon states, thereby strengthening the international non-proliferation regime," he said.

India is neither a nuclear weapons state nor a non-nuclear weapons state as it has not signed the NPT. As it has tested the bomb but has a peaceful nuclear programme, it is fighting to be recognised as a "state with nuclear weapons".

According to Chinese diplomats, nuclear deterrence, which India swears by, implies implicit or explicit threat to use nuclear weapons first.

The country has repeatedly called on the nuclear weapon states to agree to a legally binding, multilateral agreement under which they will pledge not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against states which do not have nuclear weapons.

However, President Bush presaged opposition to the deal. "I'm trying to think differently," Bush said. "Not to stay stuck in the past, and recognise that by thinking differently, particularly on nuclear power, we can achieve some important objectives," he added.