NEW DELHI: The shape of the India-U.S. civilian nuclear deal may change if the U.S. Congress doesn't approve of the agreement by June-July, senior South Block officials fear.

The officials have told The Hindu that in such a scenario India will find it difficult to agree to the additional conditionalities that are likely to be added by Congress in case the agreement doesn't get legislative approval in the next couple of months.

According to them, the Bush administration has been doing its bit to push the deal through Congress, but it is not clear when the agreement will clear the legislative hurdles.

Recently, visiting American Senator Chuck Hagel told presspersons that there was no "May deadline." Mr. Hagel, who had a number of questions about the agreement, was hopeful Congress would give its nod by this year-end.

"More crucial"

Interestingly, senior Western diplomats in the capital share the South Block's assessment. One of them said that with the Nuclear Suppliers Group set to take its cue from what happens in Congress, the action of the American legislative branch becomes more crucial.

Already, votaries of non-proliferation in the U.S. have begun to argue that Congress should not rush through with the deal. Robert Einhorn, an official in the Clinton administration, argued before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 26 that the deal with India was a "net loss" for non-proliferation.

Future safeguards

Mr. Einhorn felt that before agreeing to amend the U.S. Atomic Energy Act, Congress should insist on seeing a future safeguards agreement between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as well as a "concluded" India-U.S. peaceful nuclear cooperation agreement, currently under discussion.

He also minimised the importance of India putting additional nuclear reactors under future IAEA safeguards. According to him, under the March 2 separation plan, India could continue producing fissile material.

Supporting the deal, Ashley J. Tellis, one of those who negotiated the agreement, told the Senate Committee on April 26 felt that a close U.S.-India partnership would be impossible in the absence of civilian nuclear cooperation.

"This is not to say that U.S.-Indian collaboration will evaporate if civilian nuclear cooperation between the two countries cannot be consummated, but merely that such collaboration would be hesitant, troubled, episodic and unable to realise its full potential without final resolution of the one issue that symbolically, substantially and materially kept the two sides apart for over 30 years," Mr. Tellis said.

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