Former US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott has attacked the Bush administration for agreeing to the nuclear deal with India in the present form, saying it amounted to giving "cost-free exception to the strictures of the Non-Proliferation Treaty".

The US had offered the civil nuclear deal to India during the Clinton administration but the then National Democratic Alliance government's inability to sign the Comprehensive Test ban Treaty and accept three other "modest suggestions" ensured it did not fructify, he said in New Delhi Tuesday.

The pact would have been different under the Clinton government even though any US president would have wanted to strengthen the relationship with New Delhi and "find some accommodation with India on the nuclear issue," Talbott told PTI.

Talbott, who had been engaged in a strategic dialogue with then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, said the current US administration "chose to give India a virtually cost-free exception to the strictures of the Non-Proliferation Treaty".

He said this was not a criticism of India for asking for such a deal, but a criticism of "my own government for not having driven a harder bargain".

"Whether driving a harder bargain would have succeeded or not, one never knows," he said.

Talbott said his concerns were not that "India will be an irresponsible custodian of nuclear weapons" but that other countries, using India's case, would demand the same.

There are at least half a dozen such countries, including in the Gulf and Middle East who could do so, he said, adding Iran is one of the nations having ambitions to acquire nuclear weapons.