A landmark nuclear agreement between India and the United States drew stiff opposition Monday, both from within the Indian ruling coalition and the main opposition party, which said the current version would humiliate the country.

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party called the agreement "unequal" and said it would impose tough conditions that would effectively hobble India's nuclear program, while the country would have no assurance of uninterrupted fuel supplies for its civilian nuclear reactors.

"The US has been shifting goal posts and the government of India has not only been acquiescing in it, but adopting them as the latest benchmark," Yashwant Sinha, a senior BJP leader, said in a statement.

Arguing that the agreement would bind India's future nuclear capabilities, the BJP has urged the government to reject the deal's "humiliating" conditions.

"The deal is more unequal than ever before ... India's nuclear weapons program will be subject to intrusive US scrutiny," Sinha said.

The deal, approved by the US Congress on Saturday, would allow shipments of civilian nuclear fuel to India, overturning a decades-old American anti-proliferation policy. India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

The approval paves the way for US President George W. Bush to sign the legislation into law.

But the version approved by Congress raised concerns in India over provisions that could limit its right to reprocess spent atomic fuel and employ other sensitive nuclear technologies, and would require Bush and his successors to determine if New Delhi is co-operating with Washington's efforts to confront Iran about its nuclear ambitions.

The law also drew criticism from India's two main Communist parties, both members of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's ruling coalition government.

The Communists stopped short of rejecting the deal, but called on the government to seek clarification from the Bush administration of clauses that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said would "seriously undermine" India's foreign policy.

"This is an attempt to bind India to US strategic interests. We fear it will adversely affect our independent foreign policy and our strategic autonomy," CPI-M chief Prakash Karat said.

The government has said the deal will end decades of isolation imposed on India's nuclear and high-technology agencies.

Ruling Congress Party lawmakers said the opposition had not considered the merits of the deal.

The agreement creates an exemption in US non-proliferation law allowing American civilian nuclear trade with India in exchange for Indian safeguards and inspections at its 14 civilian nuclear plants. Eight military nuclear plants would be off-limits in the deal.

(China Daily December 12, 2006)