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VIENNA-Forty-five nations meet on Thursday to try to bridge differences over a move to lift a ban on nuclear trade with India, needed to seal a U.S.-Indian atomic deal but seen by some as a threat to non-proliferation.Washington has lobbied others in the Nuclear Suppliers Group for an exemption to its rules to allow exports to India, which has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has tested nuclear bombs and refused to rule out doing so again.But a revised U.S. waiver draft circulated ahead of the meeting glossed over demands for conditions on such an unprecedented concession raised at a two-day session last month, diplomats from concerned countries said.Barring U.S.-Indian openness to more than "cosmetic" revisions to minimize damage to the NPT, they said, the second two-day conclave could again end inconclusively, shunting the bilateral deal towards the verge of indefinite limbo. Without NSG action in early September, the U.S. Congress may run out of time for final ratification of the accord before it adjourns at the end of the month for autumn elections."The U.S. will not achieve consensus approval for a text presented on a take-it-or-leave-it basis, and it will certainly not achieve consensus on the text currently on the table," said one diplomat, who like others asked for anonymity as NSG deliberations are confidential and politically delicate. "The U.S. (may) finally have to enter into real negotiations with countries who put forward amendments, rather than negotiate exclusively with India as it has done up to now," he said."We will have to find a way in between (the red lines) of India and concerned states. I'd be surprised if we can do this by Friday," said another diplomat.To read more go to:
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