N-deal should deal with non-proliferation: EU

The European Union on Friday said the India-US nuclear issue, being debated in the US Congress, should address the basic issue of non-proliferation.

"We are looking with interest at the debate on the India-US nuclear deal in the US Congress. We want the basic issue of non-proliferation answered," European Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs told a press conference in New Delhi after taking part in the meeting of the EU-India panel on energy.

He said nuclear fusion was the right kind of fuel for the future in the face of rising petroleum prices, and called for ''lot of investment'' in that field.

"We should be extremely ambitious about nuclear fusion,'' he said.

He, however, added that coal would be the main fuel till "…we get a sustainable answer to our energy security."

Indo-US Nuclear Tango

"Coal has an important potential for supplying energy resources. But lot of research and development is necessary in the coal sector so that the disadvantage in the form of Carbon-dioxide emissions are countered," he said.

Piebalgs, who participated in the first India-EU business conference on energy on Thursday, met Petroleum Minister Murli Deora, Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, besides Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde.

At Friday's meeting of the energy panel, recommendations of the three groups, set up at the first EU-India energy panel meet in June 2005 in Brussels, were discussed.

The three groups are in the areas of energy efficiency and renewable energies, coal and clean conversion technologies, and fusion energy including India's membership in ITER.