NEW DELHI, Jan 19: Officials from India and the United States held talks on Thursday on closing a landmark deal that would give India access to previously forbidden civilian nuclear technology. Indian foreign secretary Shyam Saran met Under-Secretary of State Nicholas Burns in New Delhi on the proposal which includes fuel and reactors.

The dialogue follows an agreement signed between the two countries in July during a visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Washington.

Under the terms of the accord, India must separate civilian and military nuclear programmes in exchange for advanced civilian nuclear technology.

It would place its civilian nuclear reactors under International Atomic Energy Agency inspection.

Washington would ask the US Congress to amend laws to allow India access to technology normally reserved for nations that have signed the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

The deal also commits Washington to persuade countries in the 44-member Nuclear Suppliers Group to lift restrictions on India in the civilian nuclear technology trade.

Mr Burns said he was confident an agreement would be reached.

Mr Saran last month gave Washington a plan to separate India’s civil and military nuclear facilities, an Indian official said. In Thursday’s talks Mr Burns was expected to give Washington’s response to the separation plan.

Mr Burns said on Wednesday Washington believes a ‘bright spotlight’ should be kept on Iran while talks continue to persuade Tehran to end its nuclear programme.

“We have not left diplomacy behind but we have just entered a different phase,” he told reporters.

Some US lawmakers have questioned the wisdom of providing atomic fuel and technology to a nuclear weapons power like India that has refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

They also see India’s response to Iran’s suspected efforts to build nuclear weapons as key to the closure of the deal. —AFP