WASHINGTON, Oct 17: The United States and India on Monday signed an umbrella science and technology agreement to boost cooperation in areas ranging from health to space technology.

The pact, signed by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and India’s minister of state for science and technology Kapil Sibal, notably nailed down intellectual property rights issues that had snagged negotiations since 1993.

It is aimed at expanding collaboration in basic sciences, space, energy, nanotechnology, health and information technology, according to a fact sheet distributed by the State Department.

The agreement, officials said, would also complement the activities of the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, established in 2000.

Ms Rice called the pact ‘another dramatic illustration of the fast-growing bilateral relationship we are building between the United States and India’.

Mr Sibal said: “This is indeed a very historic occasion. It is indeed a milestone 15 long years after negotiations.”

Relations between the two countries have blossomed in recent years, climaxing with an accord signed by President George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July, in which Washington agreed to lift a ban on civilian nuclear technology sales to India.

The United States had placed sanctions on India after its second round of nuclear tests in May 1998.—AFP