N-deal close to being clinched after Indian delegation overstays

The finalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal is likely and the talks here are making progress, according to information available to the media both by sources close to the White House as also the Indian delegation.

Washington, July 20 : The finalisation of the Indo-US nuclear deal is likely and the talks here are making 'progress', according to information available to the media both by sources close to the White House as also the Indian delegation.

The Indian delegation led by National Security Adviser M K Narayanan, comprising Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar was scheduled to return on Thursday, but decided to stay an extra day in Washington to take the negotiations forward.

US State Department spokesman, Tom Casey, said that the progress 'warranted' an extra day of negotiations.

Narayanan met US Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday where the two sides discussed on the 'essence' of the agreement achieved in the contentious issue of India's right to reprocess of nuclear fuel.

The US has accepted India's proposal for setting up of a separate facility for the storage of the spent nuclear fuel, which was proposed by Dr. Manmohan Singh to US President George Bush on the sidelines on the recently held G-8 Summit in Germany.

India had proposed the facility to break the stalemate over the right to reprocess spent nuclear fuel after a series of meetings between Menon and US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns failed to make substantial headway.

Burns and Menon are now finalising the text of the agreement that will spell out in-principle the terms for the future agreement on the reprocessing rights.

The talks over the 123-agreement, the ratification of which will give legal status to the Indo-US nuclear deal that began with the July 18, 2005 statement, met a roadblock over the issue of right to reprocess spent nuclear fuel.

Already four rounds of formal negotiations and numerous meetings on the sidelines of multilateral fora have taken place on the 123-agreement since November 2006.

India had earlier stated that the US administration has assured it that there is nothing in the Henry Hyde Nuclear Cooperation Act that prevents them from implementing their obligations as laid in the July 18 and March 2 statements.

ANI