The deal with Washington would reverse more than three decades of U.S. policy that has barred the sale of nuclear fuel and technology to India, which has not signed international nonproliferation accords and has tested nuclear weapons.

The U.S.-India deal is considered to be one of President Bush's top foreign-policy initiatives, and the administration is eager to tie up loose ends before leaving office.

Gregory L. Schulte, chief U.S. envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, said the deal would strengthen nonproliferation.

"Today's agreement represents a major step forward to opening civil nuclear cooperation with India while strengthening the world's nonproliferation regime," he told reporters.

To implement the deal, India must strike separate agreements with the IAEA and with the Nuclear Suppliers Group of countries that export nuclear material. It then goes to Congress in Washington for approval.

Congress' calendar, however, appears to make it difficult for the deal to be approved this year. Lawmakers are only scheduled to work for less than a month before year's end because of the Nov. 4 elections, and much of their time will be devoted to measures necessary to keep the government running.

Both India and the United States hailed adoption of the IAEA safeguards agreement, which will effectively allow U.N. monitors access to a total of 14 Indian nuclear reactors by 2014. The IAEA currently inspects six of India's reactors.

"We believe this is important, not only for us and our bilateral relationship with India, but for the rest of the world," State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos told reporters in Washington.

"This is an important day for India, and for our civil nuclear initiative for the resumption of India's cooperation with our friends abroad," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.

The IAEA's 35-member board of governors approved the safeguards agreement by consensus, despite criticism that ambiguous wording could limit international oversight of India's reactors, undermine the international nonproliferation treaty, and possibly help supply India's arms programs with fissile material.

But Austria said it had stood firm in its stance against nuclear energy and said it had joined other "like-minded" nations in requesting a legally binding list of nuclear facilities to be inspected. Diplomats who were in the meeting said Ireland and Switzerland also voiced concerns, among others.

Iran, which is under international pressure to scrap its own nuclear program because of suspicion it is aimed at producing weapons, was among those with reservations about the plan. Although Iran is not an IAEA board member, it requested time to speak, as did several other nonmembers.

Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran's top representative to the U.N. agency, said in his speech that Tehran was seriously concerned about what he called a U.S. double standard.

The Nuclear Suppliers Group - to which the U.S. belongs - bans exports to nuclear-weapons states such as India and Pakistan that have not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and do not have full safeguard agreements allowing the IAEA to inspect their facilities.

But the group appears willing to consider a waiver for India, in part because of lobbying from Washington.