US wants quick approval of India nuclear pact

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was forced to call the confidence vote after communist political parties withdrew their support for his government this month to protest the agreement, fearing it would draw India closer to the U.S.

On Wednesday, several key Indian political parties, including the communists, said they were forming an alliance to oppose the government.

Though Singh made enemies in his bid to push ahead with the nuclear deal, he had the backing of India's powerful business community. Markets surged Wednesday as business leaders and investors anticipated a slew of economic changes that had been stalled because of the government's now-defunct alliance with the communists.

The nuclear pact would end more than three decades of nuclear isolation for India, opening its civilian reactors to international inspections in exchange for the nuclear fuel and technology it has been denied because of its refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and its testing of atomic weapons.

India imports about 75 percent of its oil, and Singh has argued the country needs the nuclear deal to power its financial growth and lift hundreds of millions of its 1.1 billion citizens out of poverty.

To finalize the deal, India must strike separate agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency as well as the Nuclear Suppliers Group of countries that export nuclear material. Then the U.S. Congress will need to approve the accord.

U.S. Ambassador David Mulford said Washington hoped New Delhi would quickly finalize the deal so it could be presented to Congress for approval in early September.

"We are delighted that this has taken place and we are organizing ourselves and stand ready to move ahead with the final steps of the civil nuclear initiative," Mulford told reporters.

The new political alliance brings together the government's former communist allies, a rising regional party and several smaller groups. It said that despite the vote of confidence, the government had been irreparably tainted by accusations of corruption and vote buying in the run up to the confidence vote.