India’s coalition government was undergoing a major shake-up Friday with the dominant Congress party to push ahead with a controversial nuclear deal with the United States and ditch left-wing allies.
   A four-party bloc of Communist and leftist parties was meeting to discuss what politicians described as the ‘modalities’ of a divorce from the Congress-led government because of the pact.
   The Congress party, however, was working to avoid being forced into early elections and getting the atomic deal through by negotiating a new alliance with the socialist and regional Samajwadi Party.
   SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav met the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and the Congress party chief, Sonia Gandhi, separately to finalise their agreement, officials said.
   After talks with Manmohan, Yadav told reporters that the ‘national interest is more important than politics’ — seen as a sign a deal on reshaping India’s ruling alliance was close.
   ‘Samajwadi Party’s support to the government and the deal is just a matter of time,’ author and political analyst Rasheed Kidwai told the news agency.
   ‘The SP leaders consulted former president Abdul Kalam, regarded as the father of India’s missile programme and an authority on nuclear technology, who endorsed the India-US deal as being in our (India’s) interest.’
   The nuclear deal — agreed in principle in 2005 — would allow India to buy atomic power plants and technology despite not having signed international non-proliferation pacts. The prime minister argues the pact is crucial for India’s energy security.
   Manmohan is lined up to meet the US president, George W Bush, on the sidelines of the G-8 meeting in Japan on July 9, taken as another sign that Congress was blazing ahead with implementing the pact the two leaders agreed to in 2006.
   Tensions between Manmohan and the communists have been running high for months, with the left-wing threatening to pull the plug on the coalition and force elections earlier than May 2009 as scheduled.
   India’s left says the deal undermines the country’s traditional status as a beacon of the non-aligned movement, and that allowing UN inspections of the civil nuclear programme — as demanded by the Americans — would harm the strategic weapons programme.
   After their meeting Friday, India’s top Marxist leader Prakash Karat set Monday as a deadline for the government to come out and clearly declare whether it was proceeding with the deal.
   ‘We wish to know... whether the government is proceeding to seek the approval for the safeguards agreement by the International Atomic Energy Agency,’ Karat said.
   ‘Please let us know by July 7, 2008,’ Karat told reporters, adding that the left-wing parties would meet a day later for a final decision on withdrawing support.
   The United States, meanwhile, has been pressing India to move on the deal before the end of Bush’s tenure, warning the pact may not survive in its current form under the next administration.
   Before the deal is voted on by the US Congress, New Delhi also needs to earn a waiver from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.

India needs to be wary of a rapidly modernising Chinese military as it could affect the country’s security in the long run, India’s army chief said on Thursday.
   The world’s two most populous nations are forging new ties amid soaring trade and business links, though serious differences over their Himalayan
   border, the cause of a 1962 war, fester.
   India has also been pursuing closer relations with the United States, something that worries China.
   ‘We need to take note of likely implications of China’s military modernisation, improvement of infrastructure in the Tibet Autonomous Region, which could impact our security in the long-term,’ General Deepak Kapoor said in New Delhi.
   Although India and China have signed a treaty to maintain ‘peace and tranquillity’ along the disputed frontier and agreed to find a political solution to the row, talks over a 3,500-km disputed frontier have hardly made progress.
   Kapoor said growing trade ties augured well for both countries and there was peace along the border.
   ‘Our mutual economic engagements and continued efforts to amicably resolve this boundary issue have ensured peace along the border,’ he said.

South Korea was Friday bracing for another mass protest against US beef imports and other government policies, the latest in a series of demonstrations stretching back more than two months.
   Activists said the rallies planned for Saturday would draw a million people nationwide. Police declined to give an estimate and the government warned it would deal sternly with any violence.
   The candlelit rallies were originally called to protest against the supposed dangers of mad cow disease, but have become increasingly anti-government.
   The number of participants has fallen sharply since 100,000 people gathered in Seoul and 62,000 in provincial cities on June 10, according to police estimates. Rally organisers said the figures were much higher.
   Some protests have ended violently, with more than 200 hurt in battles between crowds and riot police early last Sunday.
   In bizarre scenes, the streets of the capital are lined with battered police buses and riot police guard some major buildings.
   ‘The government will respect all voices uttered within legitimate boundaries, but will sternly deal with any illegal acts,’ said Park Hyung-Joon, a senior aide to president Lee Myung-Bak.
   Park, in a radio interview, said authorities had tolerated rallies which blocked streets as long as they were peaceful.
   ‘But the use of violence won’t be tolerated any longer.’ Top police officers were meeting Friday to discuss how to handle the protests outside Seoul City Hall and elsewhere, a police spokesman said.
   ‘We will declare the people’s victory at Saturday’s rallies,’ an official of an umbrella group of activists, the People’s Association for Measures against Mad Cow Disease, told AFP.
   ‘We expect as many as one million people will show up nationwide,’ he said on condition of anonymity for fear of arrest.
   The police have raided offices of activists and arrested three.
   The rallies were sparked off by Seoul’s agreement in April to resume US beef imports, which were halted in 2003 after a US mad cow case. In response to the protests, the government went back to Washington to negotiate extra health safeguards and the meat is now on sale.
   Small-scale peaceful protests continued this week, with liberal Catholic priests, Buddhist monks and Protestant pastors joining in.
   Supporters of the conservative government say left-wing professional agitators have been taking over some rallies, a charge denied by the protest groups.
   ‘The beef issue is not the only source of public dissatisfaction,’ said Choi Jin, an analyst with the private Institute of Presidential Leadership. ‘It’s hard to predict when the protests will end.’
   Policy failures due to inexperience, economic woes deepened by high oil prices and Lee’s alleged authoritarian style have also stoked public resentment, analysts say.

Hamas said on Friday it had suspended negotiations on the release of a captured Israeli soldier because the Jewish state was not respecting the terms of a truce with the Islamist movement.
   ‘Hamas has suspended indirect negotiations with the enemy over (Corporal Gilad) Shalit because of the non-respect by the enemy of the terms of the truce, notably the opening of crossing points and authorising the entry of all merchandise” into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, said Osama al-Muzeini, the Islamists’ pointman on Shalit.
   Muzeini was speaking as Israel again sealed off Gaza in retaliation for a rocket attack, itself a violation of the June 19 ceasefire between the two sides.
   The truce was supposed to lead to the easing of a crippling blockade Israel imposed after the Islamist movement seized power in Gaza more than a year ago, but the military said the crossings would stay closed until at least Sunday.
   Egypt has been mediating with the two sides over the eventual release of Shalit, seized in a June 2006 cross-border raid by militants from Hamas and other Palestinian groups.
   A Hamas delegation had cancelled plans to travel to Egypt on Thursday for talks on the prisoner exchange deal, Muzeini said.

North Korea said Friday it would not push ahead with an international deal to scrap its nuclear programme until negotiating partners fulfil their side of the bargain.
   The foreign ministry statement appeared to cast doubt on an early resumption of six-party talks aimed at moving on to the final stage of the agreement.
   It came only a week after the communist state dramatically blew up the cooling tower at its plutonium-producing Yongbyon atomic complex in front of foreign TV cameras.
   ‘This showed our commitment to denuclearisation,’ a ministry spokesman told the official Korean Central News Agency.
   ‘In response to our efforts, other participants in six-party talks should sincerely carry out their obligations.’
   The timeframe for the current phase of the deal was set out in an agreement reached last October 3 between the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia.
   ‘Only when other participants meet their own obligations completely can it be said that the October 3 agreement is implemented,’ said the spokesman. ‘Only after that will we be able to move on to the next stage of the talks.’
   Under the current phase the North should get energy aid equivalent to one million tons of fuel oil and the lifting of some US sanctions, in return for disabling Yongbyon and documenting its nuclear activities.
   Last week the North — which tested a nuclear weapon in October 2006 — handed over the long-awaited nuclear declaration to China, the host of the six-party talks. The spokesman described it as ‘complete and correct’ and said his country was willing to cooperate in verifying it.
   ‘However, we stick to the principled basic position that the principle of action for action must be respected,’ he said.
   He complained that while 80 per cent of the Yongbyon facility has been disabled, only 40 per cent of the promised energy aid has been delivered.
   The spokesman also complained that Washington’s decision to drop the North from a terrorism blacklist has not yet taken effect ‘due to procedural reasons.’
   After the declaration was handed over, US president George W Bush notified Congress of his plan to drop the North from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The US president George, W Bush, will attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in China next month, the White House said on Thursday.
   Human rights activists have been calling for world leaders to boycott the opening ceremonies to protest China’s record on civil rights. China’s crackdown on Tibet after deadly riots in March sparked worldwide protests over Beijing’s policies, including demonstrations that disrupted the procession of the Olympic torch.
   ‘The president and Mrs Bush will attend the Opening Ceremo-nies of the Summer Olympic Games on August 8,’ White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement announcing Bush’s trip to South Korea, Thailand and China next month.
   The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has said he will decide next week whether to attend the opening of the Games, depending on the outcome of talks between Beijing and envoys of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s Buddhist leader.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, urged North Korea Friday to improve its human rights record.
   ‘I think that North Korea... should take necessary measures to improve its human rights situation,’ Ban told a press conference after meeting South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo.
   ‘There are still many areas where human rights are not properly protected... and even abused. This is an unacceptable situation,’ he said.
   The UN chief, a former South Korean foreign minister, reaffirmed his willingness to visit Pyongyang but said he has no firm plan as yet. He said he would take ‘appropriate diplomatic measures,’ if needed, for peace in Northeast Asia, including the North’s nuclear disarmament.

Mongolia’s foreign minister on Friday called for reform of the nation’s electoral system to avoid a repeat of the deadly riots that shook the country’s capital this week.
   The violence that erupted in Ulan Bator on Tuesday and killed five people was triggered by allegations that Sunday’s parliamentary election had been rigged.
   ‘The first thing they (parliament and government) should look into is the election procedures, the accountancy and transparency of the system, to avoid anything like this happening again,’ Sanjaasuren Oyun told the news agency.
   The formerly communist Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party won a majority of seats in the 76-seat parliament, handing defeat to its main rival the Democratic Party, which said the vote was ‘stolen’.
   Oyun, a member of the smaller Civil Will Party, said there were irregularities and fraud in the election that should be investigated. ‘If things with each election have been getting worse, one should think they have to make the election process more transparent,’ she said.
   She said proportional representation, in which seats are allocated proportionally according to each political party’s share of the popular vote, would improve the chances of success for smaller parties like hers.
   A draft proposal was introduced towards the end of last year to change to proportional representation, but the proposal was rejected. The police on Tuesday fired tear gas and rubber bullets to contain the roughly 8,000 protesters.
   The headquarters of the MPRP were gutted in a fire, a police station was attacked and part of the Cultural Palace burnt.
   A four-day state of emergency was called in the wake of the violence.

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim will lead a major fuel-price protest on Sunday, refusing to cancel the demonstration despite a police ban and fears the authorities will use force.
   Anwar, facing new sodomy allegations he says are politically motivated, said however that ‘in view of the current political atmosphere’ they had agreed to shift the rally to a stadium just west of Kuala Lumpur.
   ‘We call on Malaysians who support the movement for a more just and transparent government to join this Sunday’s peaceful gathering.

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, is due next week in the Czech Republic to sign a long-sought but controversial missile shield deal amid fears it will further raise tensions with Russia.
   US officials did not rule out Rice’s making a stop in neighbouring Poland to sign a similar agreement to deploy 10 missile interceptors in that country to complement a planned anti-missile radar in the Czech Republic.
   The United States wants to deploy the shield in the central European nations by 2011-2013 to ward off potential attacks by so-called ‘rogue’ states like Iran, but Russia has denounced the plan as a threat to its own security.
   If the deals go ahead, analyst Anatol Lievin warned, Washington would see even less cooperation from Russia on issues like halting Iran’s enrichment of uranium – which the West fears is aimed at building a nuclear bomb.
   ‘Russian willingness to be helpful – wherever the United States needs the help – will go down by a couple of more rungs,’ said Lievin, a professor at King’s College London and fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington.
   A deal under which the Czech Republic would house the radar base was concluded in April.
   Rice will leave for a European tour on Monday that will include travel ‘to the Czech Republic for the purpose of signing an agreement on missile defence,’ State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters Thursday.
   McCormack did not specify a date, but the Czech newspaper Dnes reported last month that Rice will land in Prague on July 8 to sign the deal with the Czech government. NATO endorsed the US plan at its April summit in the Romanian capital Bucharest.
   But Russia is opposed to having the US missile shield on its doorstep, and public opinion in Poland and the Czech Republic is broadly opposed to the defensive system.
   In Warsaw, the Polish government said the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, and the US vice president, Dick Cheney, discussed US plans to install the missile shield in Poland in a telephone conversation Thursday.
   A senior US State Department official who asked not to be named told AFP Thursday that a ‘tentative agreement’ had been reached following two days of talks between Polish and US officials.
   But the Polish defence minister, Bogdan Klich, countered the claim Thursday in Warsaw, saying no agreement had yet been reached to station the proposed US missile shield on the territory of the formerly communist NATO member.
   Polish media said earlier that Tusk’s government was not satisfied with Washington’s proposals in a first round of talks here earlier this week.
   The United States has meanwhile hinted that Lithuania could serve as an alternate site, if the deal with Poland falls through.
   In a bid to allay Russian concerns, the United States has for months offered Moscow ways to monitor the sites in central Europe and cooperate broadly on missile defence. But several analysts only see more tension.
   Joseph Cirincione, president of the peace-promoting Ploughshares Fund who spoke to a May 30 gathering in Moscow sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment, fears US-Russia ties will worsen if Washington goes ahead with the deals.
   Such ties have ‘fallen to their worst state since the collapse of the Soviet Union... in large part because of this foolish insistence on missile defence,’ said Cirincio-ne in an audio tape posted on the Carnegie Endowment web site.
   ‘The president is rushing to deploy a technology that doesn’t work against a threat that doesn’t yet exist,’ Cirincione argued. ‘It’s a bad idea implemented poorly.’
   Saying the issue should be dealt with by the next US administration, the Washington Post complained that president George W Bush’s team was rushing to ‘complete premature and costly deals’ with the two central European nations.

The head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards has warned that any Israeli or US attack on its nuclear sites would mean the outbreak of war, the official IRNA news agency reported on Friday.
    ‘Any action against Iran will be interpreted as the start of a war,’ General Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted as saying late on Thursday. ‘Iran’s response to any military action will make the aggressors regret their decision.’
   The United States has never ruled out an eventual resort to force against Iran over its contested nuclear programme, which the West fears is cover for a drive to build an atomic weapon.
   Israel, which is widely believed to be the Middle East’s sole if undeclared nuclear power, has said it will stop Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb at all costs.
   US media reported that more than 100 Israeli warplanes staged a training exercise with Greece last month to prepare for a possible long-distance strike and as a warning to Tehran.
   Jafari warned Israel last week not to attack the Islamic republic, saying that the Jewish state was well within range of Iranian missiles.
   Iran insists that its nuclear programme is peaceful and aimed only at energy production, vehemently denying allegations that it wants atomic weapons.
   Currently under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions for its refusal to suspend sensitive uranium enrichment, Iran is set to respond to an offer of incentives by world powers aimed at resolving the nuclear stand-off.
   The country’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili on Thursday expressed optimism that nuclear talks could start with world powers, but also stressed the importance of a package put forward by Tehran.

The White House said Thursday that dangerous detainees at Guantanamo Bay could end up walking Main Street USA. as a result of last month’s Supreme Court ruling about detainees’ legal rights. Federal appeals courts, however, have indicated they have no intention of letting that happen.
   The high court ruling, which gave all detainees the right to petition federal judges for immediate release, has intensified discussions within the Bush administration about what to do with the roughly 270 detainees held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
   ‘I’m sure that none of us want Khalid Sheikh Mohammed walking around our neighbourhoods,’ White House press secretary Dana Perino said about al-Qaeda’s former third in command.
   The president, George W Bush, strongly disagreed with the Supreme Court decision that the foreigners held under indefinite detention at Guantanamo have the right to seek release in civilian courts.
   The 5-4 ruling was the third time the justices had repudiated Bush on his approach to holding the suspects outside the protections of US law.
   The legal ramifications of the Supreme Court decision remain fuzzy, but it’s unlikely that a federal appeals court would order a detainee released into the United States even if a judge finds that the government was holding the detainee improperly.

Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama insisted Thursday he had not changed his plan to order immediate troop withdrawals from Iraq, despite earlier saying he might refine his policies.
   Obama’s attempts to clarify his Iraq policy, before a looming visit to the war zone, drew a triumphant response from the campaign of Republican presumptive nominee John McCain, a staunch supporter of the current war effort.
   Obama held two press conferences within hours in North Dakota, in an attempt to dispel reports that he was softening his proposal to get all combat troops home within 16 months, in the light of recent security gains.
   ‘I have seen no information that contradicts the notion that we can bring our troops out safely at a pace of one to two brigades per month,’ Obama said.
   ‘This is the same position that I had four months ago, it’s the same position that I had eight months ago. It’s the same position that I had 12 months ago.’
   ‘My first day in office, I will bring the Joint Chiefs of Staff in, and I will give them a new mission, and that is to end this war.
   ‘Responsibly, deliberately, but decisively.’
   Obama also accused reporters of buying spin from McCain.
   ‘I think what’s happened is that the McCain campaign primed the pump with the press to suggest that somehow we were changing our policy, when we hadn’t.’
   But, in an earlier meeting with reporters, Obama said he may ‘refine’ his policies after consultations with generals on a planned trip to Iraq this month, details of which have not been announced for security reasons.
   Obama, who based his primary campaign on vehement opposition to the Iraq war, said he would conduct a ‘thorough assessment’ of his policies after the trip, his first to Iraq for two years.
   The McCain camp, in a statement from spokesman Brian Rogers, crowed that Obama had, in fact changed his position, and accepted that the current troop surge effort was a success.
   ‘We would like to congratulate him for accepting John McCain’s principled stand on this critical national security issue,’ Rogers said.

Over 2,000 US Marines battling insurgents in southern Afghanistan have had their tour of duty extended by 30 days, US officials said on Thursday.
   The move comes amid US concern about rising violence in Afghanistan from Taliban Islamist militants and other groups. The Marines’ departure date was shifted from October into November, officials said.
   Defence secretary Robert Gates made the decision at the request of Army General David McKiernan, commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
   ‘The commanders are trying to milk the summer fighting season until the bitter end and trying to cement the significant gains the Marines have made in the south,’ Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said.
   The Marines belong to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which deployed earlier this year to boost NATO forces in southern Afghanistan, the scene of some of the worst insurgent violence.
   June was the deadliest month for foreign forces in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001 ended the Taliban’s rule, with 42 troops killed in combat, according to a Reuters tally.
   President George W Bush acknowledged on Wednesday that June had been a ‘tough month’ in Afghanistan.

The United States said on Thursday it expects the UN Security Council to vote next week on sanctions against the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, and top aides in response to last week’s widely condemned election.
   The US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, told reporters after a closed-door council session he formally submitted the US-drafted resolution, which also calls for an arms embargo against Zimbabwe, to the full 15-nation council.
   ‘We expect a vote on the resolution sometime next week,’ Khalilzad said.
   Mugabe won re-election in a June 27 run-off ballot after opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of the voting because of attacks on his supporters.
   Western powers, led by the United States and Britain, are exerting heavy pressure on Mugabe to negotiate with the opposition. But the veteran leader may have room to manoeuvre.
   Security Council diplomats have said South Africa, Russia and China oppose the idea of sanctions, though they said it was not clear if Moscow and Beijing were prepared to use their veto powers given the wide condemnation of Mugabe’s re-election.
   In a telephone interview with Reuters, the South African ambassador, Dumisani Kumalo, indicated he could not back the US draft, saying the very premise of the resolution was faulty.
   ‘The biggest challenge of the resolution is the premise that the problem of the election is a threat to international peace and security,’ he said.
   The South African president, Thabo Mbeki, the designated mediator in Zimbabwe, is under fire in the region and at home for what is seen as ineffective mediation that favours Mugabe.
   Some analysts say Mugabe has embarked on a strategy of wearing down his opponents and of only making concessions to gain breathing space that could delay a resolution to the crisis for years.
   Tsvangirai on Wednesday rejected talks on a unity government, saying Mugabe must first end the violence against his supporters and accept him as the rightful election winner.
   The deadlock will make life even tougher for Zimbabweans who face the world’s highest inflation rate and food and fuel shortages. Millions have fled to neighbouring countries.
   More than 200 victims of Zimbabwe’s election violence were seeking refuge in the US embassy in Harare on Thursday.
   Embassy spokesman Mark Weinberg said about 230 opposition Movement for Democratic Change supporters were sitting outside the compound hoping for food and a safe place to stay.

Turkey’s Islamist-rooted ruling party Thursday presented its final defence in the country’s highest court against charges that it had sought to undermine the secular system and should be closed down.
   The hearing at the Cons-titutional Court, which lasted more than six hours behind closed doors, was the last opportunity the Justice and Development Party had to refute the charges before the 11 judges reach a verdict.
   The case is the latest episode in a bitter struggle between secularist forces and the AKP, which won a decisive re-election victory last year despite a divisive campaign that focused on the party’s alleged Islamist leanings.
   The court will now appoint a reporter to pen a non-binding recommendation on a verdict. The judges will then set a date to debate the case behind closed doors before making a ruling.

Around 200 Zimbabweans were seeking refuge on Thursday at the US embassy in Harare after being forced out of the political opposition’s headquarters, a senior US official said.
   ‘There were about 200 men, women and children that were removed, forced out of the Movement Democratic Change headquarters,’ state department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
   ‘We are seeing what we
   can do for these individuals. We’re contacting non-government organisations and other third parties to see what support can be provided,’ McCormack said.
   ‘We don’t see a security risk at the moment, the individuals are outside the embassy security perimeter, but again we’re seeing what we can do for them,’ he said.

Former Congolese rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba was to make his first appearance Friday before the International Criminal Court where he faces trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
   Bemba was transferred to the detention unit of the court in The Hague Thursday from Brussels where he was arrested on an ICC warrant on May 24.
   The former vice president of the Democratic Republic of Congo is accused of a range of crimes allegedly committed by his men between 2002 and 2003, when his forces fought a coup attempt in the Central African Republic at the behest of then president Ange-Felix Patasse.
   He faces five counts of war crimes and three of crimes against humanity, with specific charges including murder, rape and torture.