N-deal almost through, says Burns

Just days ahead of President George W Bush's visit to India, a senior administration official has said the US was "90 per cent of the way there" on formally working out an Indo-US civilian nuclear arrangement.

"We're 90 per cent of the way there," Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns told Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek magazine, adding, "We've just got 10 per cent to go."

Burns, the pointsman for US administration on the civilian nuclear arrangement signed between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Bush on July 18 last year, is heading to India this week for what is being seen as a round of critical negotiations.

"This has been a uniquely complicated negotiation between two equal parties but we are committed to it. And as long as both of us show flexibility in the details, I'm confident that we will come to an agreement," he said.

Burns also rejected any linkage between the civilian nuclear agreement and India's stand on the Iran nuclear issue. He said India's stance on Iran's nuclear programme was not a sticking point for the talks.

"We're well beyond all that. India joined with the majority of the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (to censure Iran), including a majority of the nonaligned countries like Brazil, Egypt and Sri Lanka to vote as it did. And we are all now focused on a diplomatic path to address Iran's violations of its treaty obligations," he told the magazine.

Burns's proposed India trip has been on the cards for some time now and only last week, the subject came up during the confirmation hearings of Richard Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia.

Boucher told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Burns was "willing" to go to New Delhi if this could be the basis for concluding a separation plan.

In a major shift in US policy, Bush and Manmohan Singh had agreed on the basic outline of the nuclear cooperation initiative in July last year.