Criticising US lawmakers for approving the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, an influential American daily on Friday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images] and President George W Bush [Images] could have done far better building their new partnership on something other than the "bad deal".

In an editorial, New York Times expressed fear that the deal could fuel a nuclear arms race in the subcontinent and claimed India could divert the uranium supplied by the United States to making of nuclear weapons.

"Many on Capitol Hill complained last year that Bush administration got taken to the cleaners when it negotiated a nuclear cooperation deal with India. But with so much pro-India lobbying money sloshing around up there, hopes are fast fading that Congress will do anything to fix it," it said.

The agreement, the editorial said, will allow the US to sell civilian nuclear technology and fuel to India for the first time since the mid-1970s, when India "diverted civil technology to a secret weapons programme".

"Bringing the world's most populous democracy and 12th largest economy back from the nuclear cold isn't necessarily a bad idea. The problem is that the US got very little for it. No Indian promise to stop producing bomb-making material. No promise not to expand its arsenal. And no binding promise not to resume nuclear testing. (The White House won't promise that either.)," it claimed.

The editorial came a day after the 435-member House of Representatives passed by a 359-68 vote a bill providing greater access of sensitive nuclear technology to India.

Listing the "costs" of turning Non-Proliferation Treaty, which India has never joined, into "Swiss cheese" including making it harder to restrain Iran and North Korea, the paper said an American think tank revealed this week that Pakistan has been building a new reactor that could produce enough plutonium for 40 to 50 atomic weapons a year.

The White House, which insists that the Indian deal won't feed a new South Asian arms race, had to admit that it had known about the Pakistani reactor for "some time," the Times said.

An army of lobbyists earned their keep this week when the House overwhelmingly approved the Indian deal with minimal restrictions, the editorial said, noting that lawmakers insisted they get to vote again after the administration
gets a formal agreement.  

The Senate version of the legislation, which probably won't come up until September, is only slightly better, the Times said adding, it prohibits the US from selling India technology that can produce fuel for either a reactor or a nuclear weapon.

"That won't stop India from producing more bomb-grade material, but at least Americans can be comforted that our equipment isn't making it. Of course, the more American uranium India buys for its power reactors, the more Indian uranium it will have for its weapons programme," it claimed.