Chidanand Rajghatta
17 Nov, 2006 0225hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK

WASHINGTON: The US Senate is on the verge of approving the Bush administration’s nuclear deal with India after lawmakers rejected the first attempt to kill the agreement by a 73-26 margin.

Both Republican and Democratic senators came together to decisively vote against an amendment brought to the floor by New Mexico Democrat Jeff Bingaman which would have required the President to determine that India committed to a cap on its fissile material production before Washington could proceed with nuclear exports to India.

The administration had said such an amendment would be a deal-killer because India would not agree to the condition considering the geopolitical realities and the neighbourhood it lived in. A majority of Senators agreed with this assessment. The vote on this amendment, the first of many that will follow later in the day, offers a broad indication of how much support the deal has.

While most Republicans voted against the Bingaman deal-killer amendment and kept the deal alive, several prominent Democrats joined them in support – among them Senators John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Paul Sarbanes and Joe Lieberman.

The non-proliferation constituency that supported the amendment that could have killed the deal included Massachusetts Democrat Edward Kennedy, California’s two Democrat Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and Illinois Democrat Barack Obama.

The Senate also defeated by a 71-27 margin a similar killer amendment moved by North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan, after which the Senator did not push for a roll call vote on his second amendment. Following the three votes, the Senate repaired to a closed private session to consider a fourth amendment.

The final vote on the bill will come later in the evening and if the roll call on the amendments so far is any indication, the bill is as good a through in the Senate.