Saturday, January 28 2006 10:30 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: India and the United States are very close to an agreement on civilian nuclear energy cooperation but towards the end of the negotiating process 'some of the most difficult issues arise', a senior State Department official has said.

"It's my assessment, and I'm the one negotiating this for six months, is that we're very close to an agreement. Oftentimes in negotiations when you get to the end, some of the most difficult issues arise," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told reporters here yesterday (Jan 27,2006).

"I think we've made some progress. I think we need to see further progress. There are a few issues. And I shouldn't go into them because they should remain confidential, but remain barriers to an agreement. I don't believe they're insuperable," he said.

"It is very hard to say," Burns said when asked if the deal would be finished by the time the President George W Bush visited India in March.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Bush agreed on the basic outline of the civil nuclear cooperation in Washington in July last year and the two countries had hoped to conclude the pact before the President's visit.

"Our hope has been that we'll be able to conclude a bilateral agreement on civil nuclear cooperation...that would happen as soon as possible. And that might happen before the President's visit. That remains our plan and I have been in touch with the Indian government this week," he said.

Referring to the controversy over the comments of the American Ambassador David Mulford, Burns stressed that as a sovereign country India is obviously going to act based on its national interests and Washington respected this.

He also said that there was a variety of views on the subject of civilian nuclear energy cooperation with India and Mulford was only pointing to what Capitol Hill's thinking on the matter is.

"There's no question that many members of Congress, including senior members of some of the relevant committees in Congress that look at foreign affairs, have made their views very clear on the Iran issue. And I think Ambassador Mulford was simply trying to indicate that the other day," Burns said.

Asked to comment on what the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had meant by 'difficult choices', Burns said some difficulty in negotiations between the United States and India stems from the fact that this civilian nuclear energy cooperation is a 'unique' arrangement; the definition of civilian and military facilities and the separation plan; and the fact that this ambitious plan must find the seal of approval from the United States Congress and the Nuclear Supplier's Group.

"So I think that's an accurate assessment of where we are. I think we've made a lot of progress over the last six months. I was not discouraged by my talks in Delhi last week. One assumes that things like this that are so, frankly, esoteric and complex take time and we are committed to conclude this deal with the Indian Government", he said.