NEW DELHI, July 8: India held talks on Saturday with the UN’s nuclear watchdog to help clinch an accord which would see New Delhi place under safeguards a majority of its atomic plants, an Indian official said.

The talks between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) came after a US Congressional panel and another Senate committee last week gave approval for Washington to help India develop its civilian nuclear facilities.

The proposed Safeguards Agreement is being negotiated by senior Indian foreign ministry official Hamid Ali Rao and is a step toward giving India access to previously forbidden civilian nuclear technology, said the foreign ministry official.

A United Nations statment issued earlier this week said a team would go to New Delhi at the Indian government’s request to discuss ‘the application of safeguards to nuclear material and facilities that constitute India’s civilian nuclear programme’.

The deal to help India set up civilian nuclear power units to meet its voracious energy needs was reached during US President George Bush’s visit to New Delhi in March. Under the deal, India will separate its civilian and military programmes and place 14 of its 22 nuclear plants under international safeguards in return for civilian nuclear technology.

Washington in return has promised to amend the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954 which now prevents the United States from trading nuclear technology with nations like India which have not signed the Non Proliferation Treaty.

India tested nuclear weapons in 1974 and 1998 and, as a result, is currently banned by the United States and other major powers from buying fuel for atomic reactors and related equipment.

India also has to negotiate agreements with the IAEA and the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which controls the global trade in civilian nuclear technology.

Soon after the India-US agreement, the chief of India’s Atomic Energy Commission, Anil Kakokdar, travelled to Vienna to hold preliminary discussions with IAEA officials on the proposed safeguards accord.

Last month, IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei praised the US-India nuclear cooperation deal as a ‘creative’ solution that will ensure New Delhi assists with international efforts to counter the spread of nuclear weapons. —AFP