Opposition lawmakers denounced the measure, key to putting into operation a 2008 civilian nuclear agreement with the United States and giving the energy-hungry country access to US nuclear technology.

Yashwant Sinha, a senior leader of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), charged the proposed legislation which limits compensation in the event of a nuclear accident was being tabled under US pressure.

"It's illegal and unconstitutional," Sinha told parliament.

Communist party member Basudeb Acharia condemned the measure as "anti-people."

The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill would put a 110 million dollars cap on compensation that companies operating reactors would have to pay and exempt equipment suppliers.

Total liability could reach 450 billion dollars with the government paying the additional sum. Critics have denounced the amount as a pittance.

BJP MPs later walked out of the chamber in protest.

Opposition MPs said the legislation undercut the rights of potential nuclear accident victims to seek proper compensation.

The legislation protects "foreign reactor builders from the weight of the financial consequences of accidents," said Indian political analyst Brahma Chellaney in a recent commentary.

The bill's passage is one of the last remaining steps needed to put into effect the India-US civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, a key part of the deepening relationship between the world's two largest democracies.

US companies have yet to benefit from the agreement while Russian and French rivals have been making headway in the atomic energy market estimated by the US-India Business Council to reach 150 billion dollars over the next 30 years.

Lalit Mansingh, former Indian ambassador to Washington, said Russia and France were unconcerned by the absence of the law since their companies were state-owned and in the event of a claim, they are covered by their governments.

Critics of the bill point to what they see as light punishment meted out after the 1984 industrial disaster in Bhopal, in which upwards of 10,000 Indians died in a gas leak from the Union Carbide plant.

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