Friday, December 23 2005 11:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: India and the US should be in a position to make 'significant advance' on the civilian nuclear cooperation agreement before President George W Bush makes his visit to India in the early part of 2006, visiting Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran has said.

The two sides have also made 'significant progress' in the crucial area of separating of civilian and military facilities and that a successful outcome of the deliberations could come 'sooner rather than later', he told reporters at the Embassy of India here.

Wrapping up his two-day visit to Washington, Saran told reporters that he is very encouraged by the environment with respect to the implementation of the July 18 agreement and that senior US officials had conveyed that there is 'very strong commitment' on the part of the administration to the bilateral partnership.

"As far as the civilian nuclear energy cooperation is concerned...we had a very, very positive exchange of views and also we came to the conclusion that we should be in a position to make a significant advance on this initiative before President Bush visit to India," Saran

"This meeting that we had produced very positive forward movement on a whole range of issues and we have exchanged views on the implementation of our respective commitments as contained in the July 18 Joint Statement. I'm going back very encouraged by the environment with regard to the implementation of this agreement," Saran remarked.

Asked whether Bush's visit to India could still be considered 'historic' or 'landmark' without a deal secured on civilian nuclear cooperation, Saran maintained that it was not fair to peg bilateral relations on any one single issue.

"India-US relationship is very wide-ranging," Saran replied going to list not only the depth and width of bilateral understandings but also what the two countries are doing on a range of global issues and challenges such as HIV/AIDS, global terrorism and the UN Fund for Democracy.

"I don't think it is fair to really peg India-US relations only on one particular thing. It is very wide- ranging, we have had a positive exchange of views on civilian nuclear energy cooperation and I go back very encouraged", the Foreign Secretary said.

Saran was asked to comment on the issue of the separation of the civilian and military nuclear facilities and in a perception that the sooner this is done, it could move the process faster.

"Both the United States of America and India are conscious of the timeline in respect of the implementation of this agreement and we have exchanged ideas on the implementation of the July 18 agreement," the senior Indian official said.

"We have made significant progress in this regard and we hope we would be able to have a successful outcome of our deliberations sooner rather than later," Saran remarked.