Talks with IAEA in Sept must for nuke deal: Official

Negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) must continue in September if India wants to conclude the Indo-US Civil Nuclear Agreement to catch the US Congress before it goes into election cycle, according to top sources familiar with the negotiations.

The Left parties, which support the UPA government in Parliament, have warned of serious consequences if the government continues with the IAEA negotiations before addressing their objections to the Hyde Act of 2006, which provides the legal basis for the nuclear agreement.

The IAEA, a United Nations-mandated body that is accepted as the global nuclear watchdog, has already held three meetings with India. The meetings have explored the main concepts that would be embedded in an India-specific nuclear safeguards agreement.

R Chidambaram, principal scientific advisor to the prime minister, and IAEA chief Mohammad el Baradei have held at least one round of preliminary discussions on the issue.

On the basis of these discussions, the government has virtually firmed up its position that Information Circular (INFCIRC) 66 Review I (Rev I) will form the basis for a model India-specific safeguards. This is the same system that currently covers the Tarapur and Rawatbhata nuclear power plants.

The INFCIRC/66 system came into existence in 1963, when the Soviet Union agreed to IAEA safeguards after having opposed them.

INFCIRC/ 66 was designed to define safeguards to be applied to individual plants and shipments of fuel. As non-nuclear weapon states had no reprocessing plants at the time, enrichment was not covered by the INFCIRC/66 series.

Today, INFCIRC is criticised by the non-proliferation activists for being too liberal as it leaves too many decisions to the discretion of the IAEA Secretariat. The frequency of IAEA inspections "" that India is deeply sensitive about "" is also limited under this system.

Sources say INFCIRC 66 rev I is the least intrusive of all safeguard systems, given India's unique status in the IAEA.

The problem they say is the delay in sealing the deal. Egypt leads the charge of nations in the IAEA that wants full-scope safeguards to be applied to India. Israel, India and Pakistan are the only three nations in the world that have a nuclear device but have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"The US negotiation was easy. The hard part comes now" said an official ruefully. "We're losing time".