While the Indian government has pinned its hopes on the meeting of the IAEA board of governors on 1 August for the next steps after the boards's approval of the India-specific safeguards agreement, China merely said it was studying the draft safeguards agreement between India and the  International Atomic Energy Agency  (IAEA), Pakistan has opposed the agreement.

External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters in New Delhi that there was no question of "fast-tracking or slow-tracking" the nuclear deal and said it is a process which is on, and further steps would be taken after the IAEA board approval. After the IAEA clearance, India will have to get exemption from the NSG before the US Congress could be approached for final vote.

China, which had last week hinted that it might not be a stumbling block for the deal to go through, on the eve of India presenting its case to the IAEA . One of the recognised five nuclear powers, China is a member of both the and also the 45-nation NSG and the IAEA, which meets on 1 August to consider India's case.

However, Pakistan, in a letter to IAEA board of governors and Nuclear Suppliers Group members has sought amendments to the draft document, warning that a increased Indian access to nuclear fuel could accelerate the atomic arms race between them.

Analysts say Pakistan, which alonng with India is member of the IAEA board of governors, was trying to lay the ground to vote against the agreement.

Calling it discriminatory and dangerous'', the permanent representatives of Pakistan to the United Nations in New York and to IAEA in Vienna, have written identical letters to IAEA board of governors and NSG members saying the unjustified call for an exemption to India alone from the NSG rules were discriminatory and dangerous and it was important to resist the drive to steamroll this agreement through the IAEA-board and the NSG

It has also said opposed the 1 August meeting to consider the India-IAEA safeguards agreement by the board of governors  saying that under the IAEA procedures the agreement can only be considered 45 days after the circulation of the draft on 9 July. It said the agreement could not be cosidered before  25 August, as there wetre no technical or substantive reasons for this to be waived.

On the contrary, Pakistan has argued in its letters, the ''unique and exceptional'' contents of India-IAEA agreement required that time be provided to the IAEA board of governors to carefully study the agreement before considering it for approval

Expressing concern over the separation of India's civillian and military nuclear facilities and Pakistan has objected to recognising India as a country with ''advanced nuclear technology'',  Pakistan said that the IAEA-governors were being told to recognise and accept India's nuclear weapon status.

Pakistan's letters are also reported to have objected to "ambiguous provisions" on the conditions for the termination of the Safeguards Agreements; "unspecified corrective measures" which would allow India to ensure uninterrupted operation of its civilian nuclear reactors, contravening the continuation of IAEA safeguards in perpetuity.

Pakistan aso charged that India could acquire nuclear fuel for the declared civilian facilities, and instead build up a ''strategic reserve'' for the life-time of the reactors, before terminating safeguards and divert the fuel for weapons purposes.

It also highlighted that the facilities to be safeguarded were not listed in the Safeguards Agreement, and rqaised the question "What is the purpose of the agreement if the facilities to be safeguarded are not known?"

Seeking to drum up support for its case, an Indian delegation will visit various NSG nations later this week, pushing its case particularly among those known to have reservations on allowing exemptions to India.  

The Nuclear Suppliers Group bans exports to nuclear weapons that have not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and do not have full safeguard agreements allowing the IAEA to inspect their facilities.

But the Nuclear Suppliers Group is ready to consider a waiver for India, partly due to Washington's lobbying.

Morover, while sending the India Specific Safeguards Agreement for the approval of the board of governors, IAEA director general Dr Mohd ElBaradei, has stated that if India puts one facility for safeguards in 2009 it would cost €1.2 million for the agency to undertake this task.