'Indo-US N-deal could destabilise South Asia'

A Democratic Congressional critic of the Indo-US civil nuclear Act has flayed the Bush administration, saying it enabled New Delhi to increase its weapons arsenal by freeing domestic sources of uranium that 'could further destabilize South Asia.'

"India will be able to increase the size of its nuclear arsenal, since it will no longer be forced to use its scarce domestic uranium reserves to generate electricity," said California Democrat Howard Berman at the Arms Control Association, a think tank advocating strengthening nuclear non-proliferation regime worldwide.

"In response, China may push to cut a similar deal with Pakistan, which could further destabilize South Asia," Berman said in a recent address at the institute.

"A Q Khan's nuclear black market opened up a whole new dimension of nuclear proliferation. Most troubling of all, the same terrorists that attacked us on 9/11 are dedicated to acquiring weapons of mass destruction and, unlike a state, can't be deterred," Berman said, adding: "Many of the people who have been dealing with these issues for a long time warn that the nonproliferation regime is teetering on the brink."

"Given the strong opposition of the administration and given the tremendous investment by the Indian-American community in passing the legislation, we really did much better than I think almost anyone thought," the California Democrat said.

"Based on my observation of the administration's negotiating strategy with the Indian government, I think we might want to consider negotiations as an additional outsourcing opportunity, or that's what we did in this case," Berman said.