Indian cabinet okays US civilian nuclear pact

NEW DELHI: Approving the draft Indo-US nuclear cooperation agreement reached in Washington last week, Government on Wednesday said 'all concerns' of India have been 'adequately addressed'.

The nod for the 123 agreement to operationalise the nuclear deal was given at a joint meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) and Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

'All concerns of India have been reflected and adequately addressed' in the agreement, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said after an hour-long meeting held at the residence of the Prime Minister.

Besides Mukherjee, the meeting was attended among others by Defence Minister AK Antony, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Finance Minsiter P Chidambaram, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and Surface Transport Minsiter TR Baalu.

India's concerns during the tough negotiations in Washington led by National Security Adviser MK Narayanan related to right to test nuclear weapons, guarantees of life time fuel supply and the right to reprocess the spent fuel.

The Prime Minister will apprise his predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Leader of Opposition LK Advani and Jaswant Singh on the salient features of the agreement.

As part of the consultations, he will meet CPI(M) leaders on Thursday, Mukherjee said adding that the government will make a statement on the agreement on first working day of Parliament, which is slated to commence its Monsoon session on August 10.