WASHINGTON, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to travel to India to sign a landmark nuclear agreement, which has cleared the final US legislative hurdle for resumption of bilateral civilian nuclear trade.

Rice will leave for New Delhi on Friday for talks on the nuclear deal with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other officials before heading to Kazakhstan on a separate mission, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

The agreement, which lifts a ban on civilian nuclear trade imposed after India first conducted a nuclear test explosion in 1974, was overwhelming approved by the US Senate on Wednesday.

President George W. Bush, who scored a key foreign policy success following the fast tracked congressional passage of the nuclear agreement, said he looked forward to signing the deal into law.

The two countries had spent three years negotiating the deal since Bush and Singh first agreed to it in 2005 as part of a strategic partnership between the two biggest democracies.

'The US-India 123 Agreement reflects the transformation of our relations and a recognition of India?s emergence on the global stage,' Rice said in a statement ahead of her trip.

It 'bolsters our partnership with the world?s largest democracy and a growing economic power, and will provide economic and job opportunities for our economy,' she said.

Rice will 'sign the 123 agreement,' the operating pact of the nuclear deal, during her weekend trip to New Delhi, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Rood told AFP.

'At the government level, we still have work to do in order to implement this,' he said.

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee is expected to sign on behalf of his government.

Arms control experts meanwhile cautioned that India had yet to sign up their new safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, a key prerequisite before the United States could sell nuclear technology and fuel to India.

India has also not provided to the agency a list of civilian nuclear reactors that would be open for inspections, said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the US Arms Control Association.

Under an agreement drawn up by the IAEA, 14 of India's 22 civilian nuclear reactors -- six of which are already subject to other safeguard agreements -- are expected to come under agency supervision by 2014, the first ones as early as 2009.

'As we move forward, the United States will continue to abide by the commitments it has made to India throughout this process,' White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.

'We have every reason to believe that India will also abide by its commitments, thereby providing a solid framework for cooperation,' he said.

The US Chamber of Commerce said with India?s 34-year nuclear isolation now history, a potential 150 billion dollars (107 billion euros) of new investments were expected in terms of new nuclear generating capacity by 2030.

Rice will also meet with Indian opposition leader L. K. Advani of the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which together with the communists had slammed the nuclear deal, saying it would curb India's military options and bring the country's foreign policy too much under US influence.

In her talks with Indian leaders, State Department spokesman McCormack said Rice would raise other issues such as trade, counterterrorism, human rights, religious freedom and education as part of the broad strategic relationship the two countries had agreed to.