WASHINGTON (AFP) - Twenty-three US groups launched an effort to stop a US deal aimed at providing India with civilian nuclear fuel and technology, saying it would instead beef up New Delhi's atomic weapons capability.

The Campaign for Responsibility in Nuclear Trade said the US-India civilian nuclear agreement would also "dangerously weaken" nonproliferation efforts, embolden Iran and North Korea to pursue nuclear weapons and exacerbate a nuclear arms race in Asia.
US President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reached an agreement more than two years ago in which Washington would provide India with nuclear fuel and technology even though the nuclear-armed Asian nation has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

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