Friday, June 01, 2007

India, US hold talks on nuclear deal

NEW DELHI (AFP) - India and the United States began talks Thursday intended to resolve delays in a nuclear energy deal that will give India access to long-denied Western nuclear technology.

Chief US negotiator Nicholas Burns met Indian officials in New Delhi to kick off talks on how civilian nuclear cooperation would work between the two countries.

The deal will reverse three decades of US sanctions on nuclear trade with India, even though New Delhi has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and tested nuclear weapons in 1998.

"Little more work is needed to conclude the pact," which was signed in 2005 during a visit here by US

President George W. Bush, Burns said before meeting Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon.

The pact requires India to separate nuclear facilities for civilian and military use and set up a regime of international inspections for the former in return for technology and nuclear fuel supplies.

"None of the issues that we have highlighted will be brushed aside and they will be examined by both sides in the light of our good bilateral relations," an Indian foreign ministry official said on condition of annoynimity.

India was formally non-committal on the talks, which come a week after experts from the two countries met in London to address unspecified "technical issues."

"The visit will be the occasion for further discussions," the foreign ministry said without elaborating.

Burns also met Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy head of a national ecomic policy-making agency and other officials on the first day of the talks, officials said.

US ambassador David Mulford warned on the eve of the talks that tricky issues still needed to be ironed out.

"There is considerable work to be done on what is a very technical and detailed agreement," Mulford said.

"We want to finish as soon as we can and both sides are positive we can do this," he said.

Press Trust of India (PTI) said said the talks were likely to focus on testing and reprocessing spent nuclear fuel.

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