A UN nuclear watchdog group on Friday unanimously approved an inspections plan for India's civilian nuclear energy plants, a key step toward completing a controversial nuclear deal between the United States and India. The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board granted the approval after meeting in the Austrian capital, Vienna, officials said. The board agreed to regular IAEA surveillance of India's 14 declared civilian nuclear energy plants. India's government recently survived a confidence vote over the nuclear deal, which sparked protest by Parliament members who believed it tied India's foreign policy too closely to US interests.

The United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency provided a crucial boost Friday to prospects for a nuclear deal between the United States and India, dramatically improving the Bush administration's odds for a landmark foreign policy success in its final months in office. The International Atomic Energy Agency approved a key inspection agreement that enables it to oversee and safeguard India's civilian nuclear facilities. The agreement amounted to a show of international support for the US-India nuclear cooperation pact, which would give New Delhi worldwide access to nuclear equipment and assistance that had been off-limits for 34 years because India sidestepped international nonproliferation accords in building atomic weapons.

Australia has moved to heal a rift with India over uranium sales by giving the green light to the new nuclear power agreement between the US and India. The Rudd Government backed the deal last night at the International Atomic Energy Agency board, and will do so at the Nuclear Suppliers Group meeting next month. At a meeting in Vienna, the IAEA board adopted a safeguards agreement, or inspections plan, crucial to the deal between India and the US. Without the IAEA safeguards, India cannot import nuclear technology from the 45-nation NSG, so the plan is key to India's efforts to gain access to legal imports of nuclear fuel and technology from the US. The NSG is set to endorse the deal at a meeting next month. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said last night the Government believed the agreement on the safety and expansion of India's civil nuclear power was a "positive step forward".