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On May 6, during Russian President Vladmir Putin's last day in office, the American and Russian governments finally signed their long-sought civil nuclear energy agreement. The accord facilitates the transfer of technologies, materials, equipment and other components used to conduct nuclear research and produce nuclear power.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush asked Congress on Tuesday to review a civilian nuclear deal with Russia, but lawmakers warned there may be attempts to block it over Moscow's links to Iran's nuclear program.

If claims by Iran that it's building 3,000 more centrifuges to enrich nuclear fuel are true, then the Bush administration and Congress face a more serious challenge than we first thought. Even assuming that Iran intends to use nuclear energy solely for peaceful purposes - and there are very good reasons to doubt Iran's stated intentions - the dangers posed by unsupervised, weapons-grade material in the hands of a regime that has threatened to "wipe Israel off the map" are unacceptable.

Even after withdrawing support to the UPA Government at Centre, the Left leaders are blasting the Central Government for its attempt to conclude the Nuclear deal with the USA. Terming the deal as a 'dangerous game plan',West Bengal Civil Defence Minister Srikumar Mukherjee observed that America has hidden agenda behind the N-deal and it would not meet the demands of energy security of India.

The CPI(M) today said the party will strengthen protests against the Indo-US nuclear deal notwithstanding results of tomorrow's trust vote in the Lok Sabha. "The Government had destroyed our trust on assurances of discussing the deal before going ahead with it. Now we will strengthen our protests if the Government still remains adamant about pursuing the deal after the trust vote," CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.

If you had asked members of the Left parties only a few months ago whether the United Progressive Alliance government should be toppled on the issue of the US-India nuclear deal, a majority would have said: "No."

After nearly an year since the terms of the Indo-US nuclear deal were concluded the Indian government will be facing a no-confidence motion on 22nd July. The Indian Prime Minister was forced to prove his government's majority in the Parliament after the Left parties withdrew their support to the government on 9th July. The Left parties are of the opinion that the deal would undermine India's freedom to take crucial foreign policy decisions which includes the decision on Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.

In the end, it was a relatively comfortable win for the Indian government. In particular, it was a decisive victory for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had staked his personal reputation on the Indo-US nuclear agreement, a deal that many in his own party were not convinced about.

New Delhi: India has formally asked the United States to negotiate the "arrangements and procedures" under which American spent nuclear fuel will be reprocessed in the country, presenting the Obama administration with its first test of how committed it is to the India-U.S. nuclear agreement. The request was made last month, senior officials told The Hindu. Under the terms of the '123 agreement' on bilateral nuclear cooperation, Washington has six months to begin consultations and one year after that to reach an understanding with Delhi. "The clock has started ticking," an official said. "We have till the end of August 2010 to finalise an agreement."

IN A gigantic leap in the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, the United States has assured India that irrespective of New Delhi's reservations, they would be moving ahead with the deal. The government has held the position that the deal is flawed and discriminatory in nature. US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton had talks witht the Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna in their meeting on Friday in New York, and the decision was conveyed, said Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake. He also stated that the UN Security council's plea urging all states to join the NPT was not the topic of discussion when Clinton and Krishna met.

New Delhi: As a Congresswoman, Ellen O. Tauscher strongly opposed the U.S.-India nuclear deal. But President Barack Obama's nominee for a key non-proliferation post in the State Department did a U-turn on Tuesday, telling a Senate panel that the new administration supports the agreement and intends to implement it and that she would do her part to further nuclear cooperation with India if confirmed in the job of Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. Ms. Tauscher's views were expressed in a series of answers to written questions posed by Senator Richard Lugar.