While French President Jacques Chirac rushed to judgment in favour of a new attitude toward Indias nuclear plans, there are other Europeans concerned about consequences of the lead taken by President Bush in charting a special status for New Delhi in the international regime on nuclear weapons proliferation.

Whether or not President Bush can get Congress and the international Nuclear Suppliers Group to bend the rules in favour of India, the EU Council of Ministers is heading to ask India for additional signals and measures of support for the international anti-proliferation system.

Discussions were launched in the US Congress in early April and the EU Council of Ministers had also been considering the EU position in time if possible for an EU-India strategic dialogue meeting in May.

On April 5, US Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice appeared before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee to try to overcome some scepticism in Congress and elsewhere. She denied suggestions by some Senators and others that the accord could spark a spiral of an arms race in the region involving Pakistan and China and perhaps even other countries. While some key Senators indicated their support, others said their approval should await completion of negotiations between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency on inspections, possibly requiring some considerable time.

Indian and US Governments have insisted that the agreement would end years of discrimination against India since its nuclear tests in May 1998 and draw the country, which has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), into the international control system. Critics have pointed to the fact that India will not allow its military facilities or its fast-breeder reactors to be inspected and the accord would create additional capacity for further nuclear arms development.

There has also been considerable opposition to the US-India accord outlined first during a visit to Washington by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2005 and concluded during a March 2006 visit to New Delhi by President Bush. Neighbour and nuclear rival Pakistan immediately requested equal treatment, but was just as immediately turned down by President Bush. And Australia, Japan and China have expressed reservations or concerns about the pact despite generally good relations with India. Australia has indicated it would not supply uranium requested by India.

Privately some EU officials are aghast that the non-proliferation exemptions proposed by the US to a democracy will give dictatorships, autocracies or other regimes no other recourse but to develop their own independent or clandestine nuclear programmes. In as a friendly and constructive way as possible, EU policymakers will be expected to tell India at their strategic partnership session in late May in New Delhi that other moves would be expected to counter the potential harm done by the deal with Washington.

There is also concern in EU circles and elsewhere that the bilateral accord is seen as part of a strategy by Washington to form an unspoken and unofficial coalition to counter-balance the rising influence of China, a view rejected by Indian Prime Minister Singh and US officials. Although denied at the time, it was widely believed that former Indian Defence Minister George Fernandez had suggested that the development of an Indian nuclear arsenal was directed primarily against China.

While EU sources indicated that a full accord had yet to be reached, a general consensus was that the deal contains numerous negative consequences for both the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Nuclear Supplier Group.

EU agreement may also be reached on a request for India to agree to more complete inspections of its facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency, a suspension of its production of fissile material that could be used for military devices and a signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Adoption of additional export-control measures or membership in the Supplier Group would also be sought.

India has steadfastly rejected such actions and would appear to maintain such opposition.

Annalisa Gianella, special adviser on non-proliferation issues at the EU Council of Ministers underlined that the EU is attached to the international and multilateral treaty system and that and any accord should be in compliance with such instruments and be a part of collective responsibility. She told an audience at a meeting on the issue organised by the European Policy Centre May 4 in Brussels that EU policy should address the root causes of proliferation in the South Asia region, which should mean the perception of insecurity, by encouraging confidence-building measures, primarily between India and Pakistan.