NEW DELHI: As India waits expectantly for the outcome of the US efforts to drive home the nuclear deal at the NSG, France is already gearing up to effect its own nuclear pact with India, which the two countries arrived at in February 2006 when then President Jacques Chirac visited India.

While its future still hinges on what happens in the NSG meet, sources said that efforts were underway in Paris to get the proposed nuclear deal between India and France signed during Prime Minister Manmohan’s Singh visit to the French capital on September 30.

Widely believed to be the most well-equipped country to build large nuclear reactors, the kind of which India needs, France is clearly aiming for the first-mover advantage. Singh will attend the Indo-EU summit at Marseille in France, which currently heads the EU, before leaving for Paris on September 30.

A highly-placed official cautioned though that final inking of the deal comprised preparing volumes of legal documents and that everything would depend on how quickly NSG grants the waiver India is looking for.

France has vehemently supported the Indo-US nuclear deal all along and advocated nuclear fuel supply to India. Sources said that France has already conveyed to India its keenness to get the nuclear deal going during Singh’s visit. Indian officials maintain that the deal with France is highly lucrative because it includes transfer of vital fuel reprocessing technology. The two countries had signed nine agreements during Chirac’s visit to India, one of them cooperation on civilian nuclear technology use.

France agreed to facilitate civilian nuclear cooperation between India and the international community keeping in mind India’s energy needs. Negotiations were concluded for a bilateral agreement on civilian nuclear cooperation between the two countries during President Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to India January. The two countries, however, realised that a more compact and focused nuclear agreement would have to await the outcome of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

As EU president, France will have a crucial role at the 45-member NSG meet in shaping the opinion of countries who even without opposing the Indo-US nuclear deal, raised concerns. NSG guidelines bar nuclear trade with countries which have not signed the NPT. If NSG does end up giving a clean and “unconditional” exemption to India, the Indo-US deal would still have to be ratified by the US Congress. In the case of France though, the NSG nod would almost certainly pave the way for the nuclear deal between the two countries.

Experts believe that the French enthusiasm in getting the nuclear deal up and about is also because of economic interests. Firms in the US, France and Russia are already making a beeline for lucrative contracts to build nuclear reactors in India. They obviously expect NSG to give the go-ahead.