Vienna:  Ending three decades of nuclear isolation India is now all set to enter the global mainstream of nuclear commerce after being granted a one-off waiver by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), a cartel of 45-nations that governs rules and conditions in this sensitive industry.

After prolonged negotiations, which extended the originally scheduled two-day meet into a third day, last strands of resistance from three 'holdout' countries, Austria, New Zealand and Ireland finally collapsed and a much needed waiver for India has been granted.

It would appear that the language of the final version of the draft, worked on by the US negotiators and cleared by the Indian government, was acceptable to all the NSG members.

"Today we have reached a landmark decision to allow for civilian nuclear trade with India," John Rood, acting US undersecretary of state for arms control issues, told reporters.

"This is a historical moment for the NSG, for India and for India's relations with the rest of the world," he said.

A statement from Austria, one of the three 'holdout' nations said, "We are finally convinced by Pranab's (Indian external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee) statement and India's commitment to non-proliferation. We continue to have concerns on the language on testing but we will not block consensus."

Austrian foreign ministry spokesman Peter Launsky said, "A sense of relief is prevailing over here."

Meanwhile, a sense of jubilation prevails in New Delhi, both in government and political circles, with the historic achievement now in the bag. Prime minister Manmohan Singh's government had put its entire credibility at stake  in pushing the deal through.

The government nearly fell after its main political ally, a grouping of Left wing parties pulled support on this particular issue and sought a vote of confidence in the parliament. The government, reduced to a minority narrowly scraped through the vote on 22 July after garnering support from other like-minded parties.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari said, "It's a red letter day for India. It's not just the prime minister. the deal shows that the perseverance and vision of the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi ended the nuclear apartheid. We have been made a special exemption. This would be seen as India's red letter day when we broke the nuclear deadlock."

"As far as BJP is concerned the grapes are sour from them. Left has its own ideological view and lives in a time warp," Tiwari added. ''We have been able to convince the world about this deal.''

The nuclear deal still needs to be ratified by the US Congress before it can be said to take force. The Congress goes into a recess on 22 September to accommodate the presidential election slated for November.

The victory at Vienna is indeed historic as NSG rules forbid trade with any country that is not a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). The United States, a member nation of this cartel, sought a one-time waiver from the rules for India, a non-signatory of the NPT.

The matter was further complicated by India's insistence that it would seek a "clean" waiver, which was not ring-fenced with conditions. This raised the hackles of some members of the NSG, and also that of other supporters of the NPT regime, who mounted a sustained campaign around the world aimed at blocking the proposed waiver at the Vienna meet. 

For the United States, it had to walk a tightrope without crossing the 'red lines' set out by India and also not riding roughshod over sensibilities of countries that are essentially partner nations from the Euro zone. Another adamant holdout nation, China, is also its largest trading partner. 

The devil lies in the details, and only after details of the final amended draft emerge will it be known what the nature of the ''clean'' waiver is.

For now, it can be said that the drama of the last three days almost matched the happenings in July when prime minister Manmohan Singh's government took on a very hostile group of allies head on and came out trumps.