Tuesday, February 14 2006 10:40 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: India has played a key role in arriving at a technical level agreement on International Thermo Nuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project at a meeting in Barcelona last week.

"India, which joined the ITER group last year, did a marvelous job in helping us to reach the consensus we needed to have," Didier Gambier, EU Chairman of the Technical team told 'India News in Europe' programme in Brussels.

According to the new agreement, among other provisions, all seven parties will enjoy tax free benefits in areas such as customs duties and VAT.

The Indian representative that attended the meeting made substantial suggestions regarding implementation of privileges and immunities, Gambier said adding, India's accession has added 'flexibility' to the project.

The week-end discussions which were mainly of technical nature reached a 'key compromise' from the legal perspective of privileges and immunities available to each country.

"The negotiations bring all parties with different cultures together in that they all provide the same level of privileges and immunity as in Europe. From a technical perspective, this erases all questions of ITER," he said.

All six ITER participants Japan, China, India, EU, Canada and Korea except for the US will adhere to the same privilege and immunity agreements as discussed Owing to their legislative structure, the US will adhere to the same, but through the International Organisation Immunities Act.

As per the ongoing negotiations, the EU which will house the hi-tech nuclear fusion energy project in Cadarache in southern France will finance 50 per cent of the total project.

All other participants will finance 10 per cent equally and India's additional equal 10 per cent contribution will bring overall finances to 110 per cent of the projects estimated to cost 5 billion Euro.

Aspects of the agreement include areas of research and development, components, intellectual property rights as well as dispute mechanisms.

In order to be legally binding, the agreement has to be approved by the ITER's Director General in Japan and then ratified and signed by the 25 member states as well as other participating countries. Only then will it be mandated and signed by the EU's nuclear agency Euratom.

Since the procedure could take up to a few months an interim agreement will be signed by all seven participants to mobilize ITER's workforce and start preparing for the construction of the project.

Gambier said the sub-group met in Ahmedabad two weeks ago to discuss the ITER project and renewed their cooperation concerning nuclear fusion.