Indo-US nuclear deal has broadened non-proliferation, says NPT

The United States says that it has broadened the non-proliferation regime by bringing India inside it through the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice told the Senate foreign relations committee yesterday that even the IAEA believed that with the Indo-US nuclear deal, India had come inside the non-proliferation framework.

She was responding to freshman Senator Barack Obama who expressed concern that the "structure" of non-proliferation "may not sustain itself over the long-term" given the Indo-US nuclear pact and that observers had claimed the NPT was "fraying" around the edges.

She responded by saying that there was a very specific circumstance of the India-Pakistan-South Asia, context for the deal with India and Rice also pointed out that the administration was engaged as well on how to go about the central problem of the fuel cycle.

She said that the "most likely problem" would come from an "Iranian" nuclear weapon. "There`s a loophole in the NPT which says that countries can pursue civil nuclear power. And it doesn`t say by what means" she pointed out, emphasising the issue with Iran and why it is that Teheran had to suspend enriching and reprocessing.