N-talks: US hopes for early breakthrough

US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns had a busy day today. He had several one-on-one meetings with all levels of the external affairs ministry in an effort to break the deadlock on the 123 Agreement, which would operationalise the Indo-US nuclear deal.

Burns said he had "good discussions" with Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and special envoy on the nuclear issue Shyam Saran yesterday. The talks between Menon and Burns continued for the second day today.

"I think we are working hard. We are working well and let us hope it will be as soon as possible," Burns said when asked how far was the final agreement. He was speaking to reporters after a meeting with Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma.

The talks yesterday made progress but some differences remained. The two countries are aiming at sorting out differences, particularly on issues like reprocessing rights, perpetuity of fuel supplies and continuance of the civil nuclear co-operation if India were to conduct an atomic test.

India has been insisting on having the right to reprocess spent nuclear fuel and is not ready to accept any legally binding clause in the agreement that could cap its strategic nuclear programme.

"Both of us (India and the US) understand how important this agreement is to our relationship," Burns said, adding, "It is without any question in the best interests of both the countries." Burns said the agreement was "mutually advantageous and there is no question in my mind that with continuous hard work and good spirit we can reach a final agreement."

Noting that Washington has a great relationship underway with New Delhi, he said much was happening between the two countries in the fields of agriculture, education, science and space apart from the civil nuclear deal.

Meanwhile, ministry officials said that many of the differences between the two countries on the 123 Agreement would be sorted out by "careful use of the English language" and that some announcements could be expected tomorrow.

Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma said he had "very good discussions" with Burns on a wide range of issues including co-operation in space, science and technology, and agriculture besides the nuclear deal, which is a "significant part" of the Indo-US relations.