France was looking forward to "large-scale nuclear co-operation' with India in the civilian arena once India reached a satisfactory agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), French Ambassador to India Jerome Bonnafont said here on Thursday. France was even "ready to sign' a nuclear agreement with India, but only after India agreed to a safeguards agreement with the IAEA and received exemption from the NSG.

It was on May 11, 10 years ago, that the then NDA government announced India's formal entry into the nuclear club, with a set of underground tests that were followed by two more a couple of days later. The initial international reaction was wholly negative, as might have been expected, and it took a lot of diplomatic effort to ride out the storm.

The UPA-Left committee meeting on Indo-US nuclear deal ended as before without any positive decision on Tuesday. It has been decided to meet in New Delhi again on May 28 after the government made a vain bid to get the outside allies' support for going ahead with securing the India-specific safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency. According to the External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee the Left members have sought more clarification on the civil nuclear agreement.

Failing to make much headway in its talks on the India-US nuclear deal, the UPA-Left committee on the pact has decided to undertake another round of negotiations on May 28 even as it becomes increasingly clear that time is running out as the tenure of the Bush administration comes to an end. The government indicated to the the Left parties that the nuclear deal was being squeezed for time and foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee told them during the eighth meeting of the committee that problems were only going to grow in the coming days.

What is the crucial nuclear issue facing the country? It is not the strategic arsenal. The former National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra, one of the very few people who had access to classified information on it and who in fact formulated the policy is satisfied that our strategic programme will proceed on the lines formulated by the NDA government. It is not the issue of India's right to test.

New Delhi: Leader of the opposition L K Advani on Sunday reiterated BJP's opposition to the India-US nuclear deal, saying it barred New Delhi from further tests. But Brajesh Mishra, national security adviser in the previous NDA government, contradicted the stand in an interview to a TV channel.

Even as BJP's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani on Sunday reiterated his party's opposition to the India-US nuclear deal, saying it could not go ahead in the present form as it barred New Delhi from further tests, Brajesh Mishra, national security adviser in the previous NDA government, contradicted the stand in a TV interview.

Contradicting the BJP's views on the nuclear deal with the U.S., the former National Security Adviser, Brajesh Mishra, has said India should go ahead with the agreement, failing which the country would suffer a "severe loss of face' and its atomic programme a setback. Mr. Mishra, who served in the previous BJP-led government, said the deal should be concluded during the tenure of Bush administration as change of government in the U.S. would make things difficult.

But don't support military options against Tehran Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad comes visiting New Delhi on Tuesday. Since the last visit by an Iranian president in 2003, the suspected efforts to acquire nuclear weapon by Tehran has become a bone of contention between the two countries. Iran formally denies that it has any ambition to become a nuclear weapons power. At the same time it asserts its right under Article IV of the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) to develop uranium enrichment technology for peaceful purposes.

The United States has said that the civilian nuclear initiative with India is bound by the 123 Agreement and not the Hyde Act. It also saw no inconsistency between the two. "We don't see any inconsistency between what we were allowed to do and required to do under the Hyde Act, but what binds India and the United States together is the 123 Agreement, not the Act,' Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher said here.