A landmark deal to improve nuclear cooperation between the United States and India moved forward Saturday with the approval of an international regulatory group, but U.S. officials who have promoted the accord acknowledged that they may run out of time to push it through a balky Congress before President Bush leaves office.
The Bush administration and other advocates say the deal would help the cause of nonproliferation by finally putting India in the regulatory system created by the treaty. But critics on the right and the left say it would weaken nonproliferation efforts by demonstrating that a country that never joined the treaty can nonetheless win international support for building its civilian nuclear infrastructure.
Bush administration officials have long considered the nuclear deal one of the most important elements of its foreign policy legacy. They believe that it could establish a long-term alliance with India, one of the world's rising economic powers, which has been wary of close ties to the United States since the Cold War.
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