Washington: US president George W Bush is set to sign the landmark US-India nuclear legislation into law at a high-profile ceremony at the White House on Wednesday. The event continues to court controversy, however, with a last minute letter from Congressional lawmakers, urging president Bush not to overturn riders attached to the agreement by the Congress, now being made public. 

The event carries intense expectations from the Indian side who would be anxious to see how president Bush responds to the controversial riders attached to the agreement in his signing statement.

For the record, the signing event will take place in the ornate East Room of the presidential mansion and will be attended by vice president Dick Cheney, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, energy secretary Samuel Bodman and India's ambassador to Washington, Ronen Sen.

About 200 other guests will also be in attendance, including Indian-American community leaders and US lawmakers.

The historic legislation has travelled a long road from one day in July 2005, when president Bush and Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh first articulated it as part of an evolving strategic partnership between the world's two biggest, but mostly estranged, democracies.

It has run into immense domestic and international opposition since, both in India and the United States.

With president Bush readying himself for the signing ceremony ten US lawmakers have chosen to dispatch a letter which warns that the Congress would be compelled to revisit the agreement when it next congregates should the administration overlook promises made by it to ensure passage of the deal.

The worries of the lawmakers are centred around the fact that even as the administration may have assured them that US would cease cooperation with India should it test nuclear weapons, the Indian side may be carrying a contrary impression.

''We want to ensure that any public or private statements by the administration with regard to this matter remain consistent with U.S. law,'' wrote Representative Ellen Tauscher, a California Democrat, and nine colleagues in the House, in a letter to Bush yesterday. ''Otherwise, we will be compelled to consider legislation in the next Congress to further clarify congressional intent.''

The resolution of approval passed the House of Representatives 298-117 and the Senate 86-13 with some riders, which these lawmakers contend allowed them to permit nuclear sales to India.

Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice was in New Delhi last week on a trip that was initially billed as a trip intended to ink the agreement. A suspicious, or unsure, Indian side decided to postpone the signing ceremony until after president Bush's signing statement became known.

President Bush has the privilege to reinterpret, or reject, provisions in legislation when he issues his signing statements.

Tauscher, chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces, and seven other signatories are among the minority who voted against the deal in the House. Two of the signatories, however, voted in favor. All the signatories are Democrats.

It may be pointed out here that the agreement nearly caused the downfall of the government led by prime minister Manmohan Singh as its coalition partners, the Left parties, decided to split ranks on this particular issue.

Opponents of the agreement have argued that the agreement lacks sufficient safeguards to prevent India from diverting domestic fuel and technology to its weapons programme after receiving imports. While all these are theoretical arguments put up by a formidable anti-proliferation lobby, India has pointed out its commitment to nuclear disarmament and also, in prime minister Manmohan Singh's words, the country's ''impeccable record of non-proliferation.''

India has so far refused to sign the international non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

The agreement allows India access to nuclear technology and fuel supplies even as it allows UN inspections of some of its civilian nuclear facilities. The agreement also keeps some nuclear sites away from inspections.

It also allows some, or all, of these military sites to come under the purview of the civilian programme at a later date of India's choosing.