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A 45-nation meeting on whether to lift a ban on nuclear trade with India ended inconclusively after many raised conditions for the move, leaving the future of a controversial US-Indian nuclear deal unclear.
The countries in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) will meet again on September 4-5 to try to resolve the matter, diplomats said.
The nuclear cartel must agree to allow nuclear fuel and technology exports to India for its civilian atomic energy programme to help seal the 2005 US-Indian trade accord.
The bilateral deal has disturbed pro-disarmament nations and campaigners since India is outside the global Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and developed nuclear bombs in the 1970s with Western technology imported ostensibly for peaceful ends.
Washington and some allies assert the deal will shift India, the world's largest democracy, towards the non-proliferation mainstream and will combat global warming by fostering use of low-polluting nuclear energy in developing economies.
But to the apparent surprise of Washington at the two-day meeting, diplomats said, over a third of NSG members proposed amendments to a US draft for a waiver breaking a trade embargo imposed on India after its 1974 nuclear test blast.
Many felt Indian access to "dual use" nuclear materials could unravel the 40-year-old treaty unless the waiver language was toughened to protect NPT principles and avoid indirectly benefiting New Delhi's nuclear weapons programme.
"There were really masses of amendments and suggestions absorbed at this meeting. Many of the delegations said the same thing in different words," said one senior diplomat.
NSG delegations debated conditions further on Friday but, far from reaching consensus required for a decision, agreed to hold a follow-up meeting on September 4-5, participants said.
