Clinton prepares to sign India cooperation deals

Clinton was meeting with top Indian officials Monday, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna, to announce a wider partnership between two countries still struggling to overcome distrust rooted in Cold War rivalries. The Obama administration regards India as an emerging world power and a key to turning the tide against violent Islamic extremism.

Clinton was also expected to sign an agreement Monday enabling U.S. companies to sell nuclear reactors to India, and possibly another on defense sales.

The nuclear deal would give American companies exclusive rights to sell nuclear power plants at specified locations in India — an opportunity that could be worth $10 billion for U.S. sellers. A second deal, which officials said they hoped would also be ready for signing Monday, is known as an end-use monitoring agreement that would give the U.S. the right to ensure that U.S. arms sold to India are used for their intended purpose and that the technology is not resold or otherwise provided to third countries.

On Sunday, India stood firm against Western demands that it accept binding limits on carbon emissions even as Clinton expressed optimism about an eventual climate change deal to India's benefit.

"There is simply no case for the pressure that we — who have among the lowest emissions per capita — face to actually reduce emissions," India's minister of environment and forests, Jairam Ramesh, told Clinton and her visiting delegation in a meeting.

"And as if this pressure was not enough, we also face the threat of carbon tariffs on our exports to countries such as yours," he added.

U.S. officials had expected the discussions to focus more on cooperation in related areas of energy efficiency, green buildings and clean-burning fuels.

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