WASHINGTON, April 17: The State Department has urged India to “understand” that the US government still faces some legal restrictions in implementing the nuclear deal the two countries concluded last year.

“There are some areas by which we are restricted under the law and I think the Indian government needs to appreciate that,” the department’s spokesman Sean McCormack told a briefing in Washington.

The US and India are currently engaged in negotiating various measures for implementing the deal that would allow Washington to supply civilian nuclear reactors to New Delhi.

“We have sought to be flexible and we have sought to be a good negotiating partner, and I think the record will show that,” the spokesman said, adding that the United States understood a negotiation was “about give and take”.

Some recent reports in the US media have indicated that Washington was not happy with India’s “pace” in responding to some of the suggestions it had sent for implementing the deal.

The reports also suggested that India had made “certain demands” that annoyed the US and that they can even harm the deal. Mr McCormack, however, said the nuclear deal has brought a fundamental change in the relationship between the United States and India on the issue of nuclear power.

Referring to the initial talks that led to the signing of the agreement, he said: “Those were tough negotiations. I think on both sides they would agree, however, that we came up with a good solution, an equitable solution.”

Mr McCormack said that the US has “outlined a pathway” in order to achieve the mutual objective of the two countries. “We'll have a good idea in the not too distant future how the Indian government is going to react to some of those suggestions and we'll have a good idea of how quickly we might be able to conclude the agreement,” he said.

The spokesman said that the Indo-US nuclear deal would also be crucial to India realizing a different kind of relationship with the rest of the international system concerning peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

The deal, called the Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006, is a bilateral pact under which the US will provide India access to civilian nuclear technology and nuclear fuel in exchange for IAEA-safeguards on civilian Indian reactors.

The act was passed by an overwhelming 359-68 in the House of Representatives on July 26 and by 85-12 in the Senate on Nov 16 in a strong show of bipartisan support.