NEW DELHI, July 25: India's cabinet approved a bilateral agreement for civilian nuclear trade with the United States on Wednesday but the landmark deal still faces hurdles before it can be finalised, officials and analysts said.

The deal aims to give India access to US nuclear fuel and equipment for the first time in 30 years to help meet its soaring energy needs, even though it has stayed out of non-proliferation pacts and tested nuclear weapons.

First agreed in principle two years ago, it is seen as a symbol of the new strategic relationship between the once-estranged democracies. The framework deal was approved by the US Congress last December.

But the two governments managed to agree on a bilateral pact needed to govern nuclear trade only last week, after several rounds of negotiations over New Delhi's objections to what it said were new conditions.

“They approved the agreement,” Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters, after a joint meeting of the cabinet committees on security and political affairs.

“All concerns of India have been reflected and have been adequately addressed.”

Details of the bilateral pact have not been made public.

“I think the Indian government, based on the discussions we had last week, is taking positive steps,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington.

He said he expected the United States to announce more details of the agreement in the “next couple of days.”

An Indian official close to the negotiations said Washington had agreed to accommodate New Delhi's concerns and allow it to reprocess spent nuclear fuel at a dedicated plant India has proposed to set up.—Reuters