Washington, July 29: The newly formed co-ordinating committee in Washington for fast-tracking the nuclear deal is split down the middle on how the US should approach the Nuclear Suppliers Group to secure a “clean exemption” for India from the group’s guidelines for global nuclear commerce.

According to sources that are privy to the committee’s deliberations last week, the dominant view in the panel is that the NSG will agree to rule changes for India only after imposing stiff conditions.

Most of the conditions discussed in the committee here will be totally unacceptable even to hardcore, blind and unquestioning supporters in India of the nuclear deal with the US.

After intense deliberations within the Bush administration, US officials who are approaching the NSG have, therefore, been briefed that the group’s members should look at four documents in their totality as containing the conditions that India would be bound by when New Delhi is granted the freedom of nuclear commerce.

These are: the Hyde Act of the US Congress, the 123 Agreement negotiated between New Delhi and Washington, the safeguards agreement and an additional protocol between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The US will argue at the next NSG meeting that an unconditional waiver is not being granted to India and that the restraints put on New Delhi through these four documents uphold the spirit and substance of the existing NSG guidelines.

In addition, the Americans will tell NSG members that their President will “review and determine” that the ground rules of the existing global non-proliferation regime have been met in the operationalisation of the nuclear deal before sending the entire package deal back to the US Congress.

In essence, the 45 member-states of the NSG, as the gatekeepers of international movement in nuclear technology and equipment, are being asked to trust America in its pursuit of the nuclear deal with India. Subtly, the US is pursuing a carrot-and-stick approach at the NSG.

The non-proliferation lobby here has already protested that behind the scenes, the Bush administration is twisting the arms of those in the NSG who have reservations about the Indian deal by threatening to leave the group or plotting its dissolution if India is not given an exemption.

In Washington, there is paranoia whenever the words “unconditional exemption by the NSG” are uttered anywhere.

The US ambassador to India, David Mulford, told reporters after attending a meeting of the co-ordination committee here last week that “unconditional” is the wrong word to use while describing the proposed NSG waiver.

The Americans will be resorting to semantics and using the term “clean exemption” when they summon an NSG meeting in Berlin, hopefully by August 10.

Because of the deep differences here over the approach to the NSG, the US draft proposing rule changes for India has gone through several revisions. The controversial nature of the approach also delayed sharing of the American draft with South Block.

The Americans are expecting two NSG meetings. The first meeting in about a fortnight will see some fireworks over conditions on India.

Washington expects to lobby the dissenters or twist their arm by the time a second meeting is held by August-end in time for the 123 Agreement to be sent to the US Congress in early September.

India will be largely forced to be a bystander because it has no standing in the NSG as a non-member.