NEW DELHI: India cannot accept international nuclear safeguards for its fast breeder reactor (FBR) programme, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asserted in Parliament on Monday. His suo motu statement in both Houses came two days ahead of United States President George W. Bush's arrival.

Referring to the "delicate" negotiations with the U.S. on the separation of nuclear facilities under the July 18, 2005 joint statement, he said the "nature of safeguards" was a "pending" issue. Dr. Singh acknowledged that "certain assurances" in the statement such as fuel for Tarapur, remained unfulfilled by Washington, but pointed out the U.S. support for New Delhi joining the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project.

The Government had taken into account the country's strategic weapons needs. The nuclear doctrine, while adhering to the principle of "no first use," envisioned inflicting severe damage on an adversary going in for the first strike. "The facilities for this [dealing with the first strike] and the required level of comfort in terms of our strategic resilience have thus been our criterion in drawing up a separation plan. The three-stage nuclear programme would not be undermined by external interference," Dr. Singh said.

India would offer only the facilities that could be identified as civilian without damaging its deterrence potential or research efforts. The proposed separation plan entailed identifying in phases "a number" of thermal nuclear reactors as civil facilities, amounting to roughly 65 per cent of the installed nuclear capacity, by the end of the process. Some other facilities of the Department of Atomic Energy "may also" be added. The separation plan would create a clearly defined civilian domain where the International Atomic Energy Agency's safeguards would apply.

"All proposals of the U.S. had been judged on merit. We will take the decision of classification of the facilities. It is essential to recall that the July 18 statement was not about our strategic programme."

Dr. Singh said he was not underestimating the difficulties in the talks with the U.S. Pointing out that there were "differing interpretations" of the country's fast breeder programme and fuel-cycle capabilities, such as re-processing and enrichment, he said it was conveyed to the U.S. that New Delhi "cannot share" the nature and content of its strategic requirements.

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