India Says It Will Not Spread Nuclear Technology

WASHINGTON - India upholds nuclear nonproliferation rules and will never spread sensitive technology, its prime minister said on Tuesday, a day after the United States promised to help the South Asian power develop its civilian atomic sector.

"India's track record in nuclear nonproliferation is impeccable," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at a joint session of the U.S. Congress. "We have adhered scrupulously to every rule and canon in this area."

India, which held nuclear weapons tests in competition with rival Pakistan in 1998, has not signed the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. However, it has agreed to accept voluntary commitments to some parts of the nonproliferation regimes.

Singh addressed U.S. lawmakers a day after President Bush, in a dramatic reversal of decades-old policy, said he would ask Congress to change U.S. law and work with allies to adjust international rules to allow nuclear trade with India.

Washington had barred providing atomic technology to India because of New Delhi's status as a nuclear power that has refused to sign the NPT, which was designed to halt the spread of nuclear weapons.

The policy shift, which underscored Washington's recognition of India as a rising power and potential counterweight to China, drew sharp criticism from members of Congress. Some vowed to push legislation to block the change.

Proliferation experts raised strong concerns that expanding U.S. cooperation with India would undercut U.S. efforts to press Iran and North Korea from halting their nuclear arms ambitions. Iran denies it is trying to build bombs, while North Korea declared itself a nuclear armed power in February.

Singh told senators and congressmen India was "fully conscious of the immense responsibilities that come with the possession of advanced technologies, both civilian and strategic."

"We have never been, and never will be, a source of proliferation of sensitive technologies," he said.

Lawmakers gave a lengthy ovation to Singh, who promised to continue reforms to open India's economy and to work with the United States in fighting terrorism and promoting democracy.

But Democratic Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, who on Monday blasted Bush's decision as "a dangerous proposition and bad nonproliferation policy," was working on Tuesday to win backing for an amendment that would block nuclear cooperation with India, his aide said.

Eni Faleomavaega, a Democrat on the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, said the United States should help India meet the energy needs of its one billion people, but the proliferation issues were "complicated."

"My concern is that if we are doing this with India, what does this do for Pakistan," said the lawmaker from American Samoa.