標題:India Wins Accord to End 34-Year Ban on Nuclear Trade (Update2) By Jonathan Tirone Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) -- India won the right to buy atomic- energy equipment after a suppliers' group lifted a three-decade ban on exports to the country, swayed by promises that the nation will keep its moratorium on nuclear-bomb tests. ``This constitutes a major landmark in our quest for energy security,'' Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in televised comments. ``This decision will open a new chapter in India's cooperation with other countries in the peaceful use of nuclear energy.'' India has suffered power shortages as the economy has grown more than 8 percent annually since 2003, increasing demand from cement companies and steelmakers. The U.S. made the proposal to the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group to give the south Asian country access to atomic fuels and technologies. ``It's really a very big step forward for the nonproliferation framework,'' U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters during a trip to Tunisia and Algeria. Rice said she spoke to Chinese officials this morning as well as negotiators from Ireland and Austria, the last holdout at the three-day meeting in Vienna. The NSG, founded in 1974 to prevent countries from copying India's use of imported technology to make its first atomic bomb, needed a unanimous vote to pass the deal. Areva, Toshiba, GE The waiver means that companies including France's Areva SA, Russia's Rosatom Corp. and Japan's Toshiba Corp. will be able to export nuclear equipment to India. General Electric Co. and other U.S. companies will have to wait until Congress ratifies a 2006 trade pact backed by President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. General Electric, the world's biggest maker of energy- generation equipment, said Aug. 25 that it may lose contracts in India to French, Russian and Japanese rivals if Congress doesn't ratify a U.S.-India nuclear deal soon after the agreement wins approval from the Suppliers Group. Rice said the U.S. has talked to India about the potential competitive disadvantage. ``I think they recognize and appreciate American leadership on this issue,'' she said. ``Because of that I think we'll have ways to talk them about not disadvantaging American companies.'' Still, she said ``the best thing would be to get it through Congress.'' Congressional Approval Congress, starting its next session on Sept. 8, may not be able to endorse the U.S.-India nuclear cooperation agreement before it adjourns on Sept. 26, House Foreign Affiars Committee Chairman Howard Berman, a California Democrat, wrote in an Aug. 5 letter to Rice. Indian officials also praised the agreement, which ``marks the end of India's decades-long isolation from the nuclear mainstream and of the technology denial regime,'' Singh said in a statement. ``Today's development is a major confidence-building move for the international community to engage with India, especially in high technology trade,'' the Confederation of Indian Industry said in an e-mailed statement. -- With reporting by Viola Gienger in Algiers. Editors: Sara Marley, Keith Campbell. To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Tirone in Vienna at [email protected]. Last Updated: September 6, 2008 10:45 EDT http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aC09QxMSVdIE&refer=home 新聞來源: (需有正確連結) -- --

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