Monday, February 20 2006 10:13 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: The United States remains optimistic that it will clinch a landmark agreement with India on civilian nuclear cooperation, a top US diplomat said in a US magazine interview.

"We're 90 percent of the way there," US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, chief negotiator for the deal, told sources.

The magazine reported Burns was scheduled to visit India this week for crucial negotiations.

"We've got just 10 percent to go," Burns said.

The senior diplomat's comments come before a scheduled visit to India by President George W. Bush in March amid hopes for a final agreement on the civilian nuclear cooperation initiative.

"This has been a uniquely complicated negotiation between two equal parties. But we are committed to it," Burns said.

"And as long as both of us show flexibility in the details, I'm confident that we will come to an agreement," he said.

In a major shift in US policy, Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed on the basic outline of the nuclear cooperation initiative in July last year.

Burns also said that India's stance on Iran's program was not a sticking point for the talks.

"We're well beyond all that," he said.

"India joined with the majority of the board of the Atomic Energy Agency (to censure Iran), including a majority of nonaligned countries like Brazil, Egypt and Sri Lanka to vote as it did. And we are all now focused on a diplomatic path to address Iran's violations of its treaty obligations," he said.