India and France signed 9 pacts including one on civil nuclear co-operation. The French President Jacques Chirac called for changes in international non-proliferation measures to accommodate India so all nuclear powers could enter into deals with India. This deal assumed symbolic and tactical significance in terms of timing. US President George Bush set to arrive in India on March 1 and with the downward spiral of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal over the fast breeder reactors inclusion, India has more bargaining leverage with the US. Bush himself wants the deal but political extremists in the US Congress are not willing to play along. In a sharp variance to the Indo-US deal, the Indo-French deal requires India to place only those reactors procured through international co-operation need to be placed under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. The other pacts were for closer co-operation in space, commerce, education, tourism, environment, culture, and civil aviation.