A green light from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group is needed for the deal, which has drawn criticism because India has never joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to proceed to the US Congress for final ratification.
Diplomats said up to 20 NSG states tabled conditions for India to do business with the cartel despite its repeated calls for a "clean, unconditional" exemption from rules barring trade with an NPT outsider that has tested nuclear bombs.
"There were proposals on practically every paragraph," a European diplomat said, referring to a US waiver draft that some delegations and disarmament critics had said was too vague to ensure NPT principles would be safeguarded.
Diplomats said conditions included full-scope UN inspections of Indian nuclear sites, no more test explosions and periodic reviews of Indian compliance with the exemption, which would be the first in the NSG's 33-year history. An NSG waiver granting India access to nuclear fuel and technology markets would end an embargo imposed after it test-detonated a nuclear bomb in 1974 with Canadian technology imported ostensibly to develop peaceful atomic energy.