September 05, 2008	Friday	Ramazan 04, 1429

VIENNA, Sept 4: Nuclear supplier nations began a two-day meeting here on Thursday to try and hammer out consensus on lifting a 34-year-old embargo on nuclear trade with India.

After the US failed to drum up sufficient support for its proposal to start civil nuclear cooperation with India at a meeting last month, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which controls the export and sale of nuclear technology worldwide, convened again in Vienna to try and smooth out their differences.

Diplomats who attended the last set of discussions had said that the US-India deal ran into stiff resistance among member states, with some setting conditions for giving approval.

The United States wants a special waiver of NSG rules for India, which refuses to sign the NPT, allowing Washington and New Delhi to cooperate in the civilian nuclear field.

At the last month’s meeting of the NSG, Austria, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, and Switzerland were all openly sceptical. Britain, France, Russia and Spain all strongly supported the deal.—AFP