Draft version of nuke pact soon

All indications are that a draft version of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal is just a month away.

This is despite speculations that Shyam Saran, the special envoy on the Indo-US nuclear deal, did not go to the US with anything concrete to negotiate the 123 Agreement.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee is all set to visit the US in the middle of March after his trip to Japan, indicating that the draft version of the agreement is nearly ready.

Earlier, US and Indian officials had intimated that there were three main areas of differences, to do with a ban on testing of nuclear devices by India, on reprocessing of nuclear fuel and its use, and guarantees on nuclear fuel supply.

On sanctions, Indian government officials say the deadlock is set to end, while on the issue of fuel guarantee, the US administration is saying that it is a "personal promise of President Bush to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that fuel supply will not be found wanting."

In New Delhi, travelling with the US India Business Council (USIBC), was Graham Wisner, associated with the Washington lobbyist firm Patton Boggs and brother of former US ambassador to India Frank Wisner.

Wisner has been at the forefront of the intense lobbying that went over the Hyde Act. He says his firm is waiting for the 123 Agreement "to get off the press" before hitting Capitol Hill.

"Indications are that the 123 Agreement is 98 per cent done," he told Business Standard. Wisner, however, says that the political climate in the US is different from the time when the Hyde Act went through.

"We are in a time when presidential nominees are being decided and the election fever is catching on. In the party which holds power in the US Congress now, Left leaning Democrats like Ed Markey have gained ascendancy," he said.

He added that Democratic fears of a proliferation race being triggered off in South Asia and about India's close links with Iran were one of the biggest hurdles in clearing the 123 Agreement, on which the Congress had to take a yes or no vote.

"We are hoping that the agreement will come through soon before the election begins," he said.