May 02, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 14, 1428

WASHINGTON, May 1: The United States and India vied on Tuesday to revive a historic nuclear deal struck nearly two years ago that has languished owing to critical differences over its implementation, officials said.

After meeting over dinner on Monday, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns and Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon got down to business for formal talks on the nuclear impasse.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due to “stop by” for a chat with Menon, who is the Indian foreign ministry's top bureaucrat.

“Our overall sense is that the Indians came here with some constructive ideas, and that there's a possibility that we could move the process forward based on these ideas, although that's not a foregone conclusion,” McCormack said.

“That doesn't mean that they're going to be able to move this as quickly as we had hoped -- we'll see -- as a result of these meetings. But we are confident in the long run that we will get this deal done,” he said.

According to Indian embassy press attache Rahul Chhabra, Menon and Burns were discussing “the entire gamut of Indo-US relations, including the civilian nuclear issue.” The US government has expressed frustration over the pace of the talks to implement the pact, which would give India access to US nuclear energy technology without requiring the Asian country to halt its atomic arms programme.

The nuclear deal was struck in July 2005 and is due to take full effect next year. The US Congress overwhelmingly approved the pact in December.

It is the centrepiece of India's new relationship with Washington after decades of Cold War tensions, as it tries to sustain its stunning economic expansion.

In an opinion piece in Sunday's Washington Post, Burns predicted that “within a generation, Americans may view India as one of our two or three most important strategic partners.” But differences persist, chiefly over a clause which says the United States would withdraw civil nuclear fuel supplies and equipment if India breaches its unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing.

Menon last week sought to dispel fears from Indian critics who say the agreement will hamper the country's nuclear weapons programme, nine years after a round of Indian atomic tests sparked a tit-for-tat response from Pakistan.

“Whatever we do with the US will not affect our nuclear strategic program,” he said in a report tabled in the Indian parliament on Thursday.

Menon launched two days of talks here on Monday, meeting first with Paula Dobriansky, the US under secretary of state for global affairs and democracy.

The State Department described the talks as “productive,” and said they covered a range of issues from democratic values to environmental conservation.—AFP