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Cabinet panel to discuss nuclear agreement Wednesday

By IANS

New Delhi : The India-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement negotiated in Washington last week will be discussed by the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday where views of his cabinet colleagues would be elicited to formulate the next course of action.

The draft 123 agreement is said to run into 30 pages and CCPA will be discussing the agreement in detail, according to sources.

A high-level Indian delegation, including National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, achieved the breakthrough after four days of tough negotiations to iron out differences.

The US reservation on giving India the right to reprocess spent fuel was addressed after New Delhi offered to set up a dedicated national facility under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.

Even though the contours of the deal are yet to be made officially public, the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is not happy with the so-called breakthrough on the make-or-break reprocessing issue, which it considers a "surrender of the country's three-stage (nuclear) programme".

The Leftists, who support the government from outside, had softened their criticism of the nuclear deal over the last few months, but they too want fresh discussion in parliament on the 123 agreement.