NEW DELHI: United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday that U.S.-India civilian nuclear cooperation would enhance energy security and "ease" New Delhi's reliance on hydrocarbons "from unstable sources like Iran".

Delivering a speech on U.S.-India civilian nuclear cooperation in Washington, Ms. Rice claimed that by addressing India's "unique" nuclear situation "creatively and responsibly", the two countries would elevate their partnership to a "new strategic level".

"India and the United States can accomplish great things in this new century. We can define this new era not as `the American century', not as `the Indian century' — but as freedom's century. This is the great calling of our new partnership," she said.

More needs to be done

Though the Bush Administration had worked tirelessly with the U.S. Congress to ensure that this initiative went through, Ms. Rice conceded that more work remained to be done. After clearing the hurdle at committee stage in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the amendments to allow for civilian nuclear cooperation had to be passed by the full bodies of both Houses.

"So we are hard at work with both Houses of Congress, especially with the India caucuses. And we are encouraging both the Senate and the House to vote on the civil nuclear initiative this month, before the summer recess," she said.

"As we work to win passage of the initiative through our own democratic process, I want to note that we are mindful that this decision has also not been easy for Prime Minister [Manmohan] Singh and for India. Some in India want to keep America at arm's length.

"And the Prime Minister has had his own domestic fights against protectionism, but to his great credit he won support for the civil nuclear initiative in India. Now, we look forward to India fulfilling its remaining commitments under the agreement that we made on July 18 last year," Ms. Rice maintained.

"Wrong policy"

Reiterating American support for the international nuclear non-proliferation regime, the cornerstone of which was the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), she said: "We desire to strengthen this regime, which is why we believe that India's continued isolation from it is the wrong policy."

"Let me be clear: We do not support India joining the non-proliferation treaty as a nuclear weapon State. Rather, the goal of our initiative is to include India, for the first time ever, in the global non-proliferation regime," she added.

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