Top Indian diplomat heading to NZ over nuke issue

India's top diplomat is heading to New Zealand to lobby Wellington for support of its nuclear deal with the United States.

It comes as the United States and France also pressure Prime Minister Helen Clark over the deal.

New Zealand sits on a key international nuclear body and with a small group of nations will later this month determine whether India can sign a much yearned for nuclear technology deal with the United States.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Helen Clark said "New Zealand has reservations" about the deal and will work with others at a crucial meeting of the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) on August 21.

New Zealand refuses to sign off on the deal saying India cannot have it because it has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). India wants a waiver from the rule.

India's diplomats regard Switzerland and New Zealand, along with Austria, Ireland and the Netherlands, as the five "toughest" NSG members that are opposed to any concessions for India.

While special representatives of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have already engaged with three of them, an attempt is now being made to convince the leaders in Switzerland and New Zealand to support the waiver for India.

Singh has invested his political future in a treaty with the US in which Washington will supply India with civilian nuclear fuel and technology. He narrow survived a confidence vote last month in push through the deal on his side. 

A fortnight ago the UN's atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) approved an inspections agreement with India that is key to finalising the nuclear cooperation deal that critics say undermines non-proliferation efforts.

In a press briefing last week the US Ambassador to India, David Mulford, said Washington and Paris had launched a campaign with NSG member countries to secure a "clean exemption" from the NPT for India to enable it to undertake nuclear commerce with the international community. 

He said President George Bush was calling on NSG leaders.

When in Auckland a fortnight ago US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pushed for New Zealand support of the deal.

"The US is very heavily engaged in a major diplomatic offensive at all levels," he said. 

"We continue to move forward and are working very closely with the Government of India to coordinate this process. We are working out the language we want to submit to the NSG. One that is done, we will submit it to the NSG and hope it moves quickly in August. 

The French ambassador to India Jerome Bonnafont told reporters Paris was in close touch with countries like Ireland, Norway, Austria and New Zealand, trying to remove their misapprehensions about giving clean exemption to India. 

- © Fairfax NZ News