N-facility separation at 'advanced stage'

Singh was quoted Monday in the Indian press as saying that New Delhi has made rapid progress on identifying those plants to be considered civilian and hence subject to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The exercise of designating nuclear plants as military or civilian is at "a fairly advanced stage," Singh told reporters flying with him Sunday as he headed to Malaysia to attend three days of meetings with Asian leaders.

US President George W. Bush agreed to give India, which is not a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), access to civilian nuclear energy technology under a deal he signed with Singh in July.

But India has to first separate its civilian and military nuclear programmes, which could mean an effective cap on nuclear weapons production.

India tested nuclear weapons in May 1998 -- tests which were matched by rival Pakistan the same month, which sparked concerns of a nuclear arms race in South Asia.

Under the US-Indian deal, the US Congress would amend proliferation laws that would allow India to buy advanced nuclear technology once the facilities are separated.

"The separation plan must ensure, and the safeguards must confirm, that US-India civil nuclear cooperation does not in any way assist India in manufacturing nuclear weapons," Republican Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said last week.

"This is consistent with US obligations under the NPT and with US law."

But some Indian security analysts have expressed unease over the move.

"What is not clear is how and why the Manmohan Singh regime got into a position wherein New Delhi is ready to be hustled into delivering a plan to separate the civilian and military parts of a wholly-integrated Indian nuclear programme that will permanently undercut India's military nuclear options in the future," Bharat Karnad, an analyst at the Centre for Policy Research think tank, wrote in the Asian Age newspaper on Monday.