INDIA: President Bush begins his three-day visit to India today, hoping desperately to clinch a controversial and trouble-ridden nuclear deal that has been under negotiation for months.
The nuclear pact could provide India with much-needed uranium for its atomic plants, provided Washington agrees to Delhi terms on clearly demarcating its intertwined civilian and military nuclear facilities, placing the former under international supervision.
India, like rival neighbour Pakistan, is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). It conducted its first underground nuclear explosion in 1974, followed by five more in 1998, making it a de facto, but unrecognised, nuclear weapon state.
"We have judged every proposal made by the US side on merits, but we remain firm in that the decision of what facilities may be identified as civilian will be made by India alone, and not by anyone else," prime minister Manmohan Singh told parliament earlier this week.
The proposed accord, agreed in principle last July when Mr Singh visited Washington, would provide India access to long-denied US nuclear equipment and fuel. It would also allow other states such as France and Russia to conduct atomic business with Delhi.
"Members [ of parliament] may be assured that in preparing a separation plan, there has been no erosion of the integrity of our nuclear doctrine, either in terms of current or future capabilities," Mr Singh said.
He added India would not accept international controls on its experimental fast-breeder reactor programme, a sticking point in negotiations.
The fast-breeder reactor is crucial to India's nuclear weapons programme and its strategic deterrence of Pakistan and China with whom it has been to war over territorial disputes.
India would not compromise its nuclear weapons programme in its pursuit for energy, Mr Singh told MPs.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan stuck to the Bush administration line that it was uncertain whether the deal would be struck before Mr Bush travels to Delhi.
Separating India's tightly entwined civilian and military nuclear programmes is key to the deal because the US has only agreed to recognise India as having a civilian nuclear programme, not as a legitimate nuclear weapons state. Mr Singh insists, however, that in the July agreement, "the US implicitly acknowledged the existence of our nuclear weapons programme".
A major security operation was in force at Shannon Airport last night in advance of the arrival of the US presidential aircraft, Air Force One, in the early hours of this morning.
The operation involved more than 400 gardaí, Army, air corps and airport security and included the Army bomb disposal team.
It is also understood that secret service personnel from the US visited the airport some days in advance of the arrival of the presidential aircraft and carried out checks to ascertain any security risks.