Thursday, March 2 2006 13:32 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: After late night negotiations, India and the US were today(Mar 2,2006) hopeful of clinching a follow up agreement on the historic nuclear deal during talks visiting US President George W Bush will have with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Sources said there has been some progress on tying up the loose ends as hard bargain continued late last night shortly after Bush's arrival. The interlocutors of the two countries remained in constant touch to iron out differences.

It is hoped that the differences on the agreement for implementation of the July 18 landmark nuclear deal between Singh and Bush in Washington, could be sorted out during the talks between the two leaders in Hyderabad House.

Tough negotiations have been on between the two countries on the plans for separation of civilian and nuclear facilities with US saying India should place all its civilian facilities under IAEA safeguards and Prime Minister Singh making public the roadmap that include bringing 65 per cent of civilian facilities for international inspection.

The leaders would be joined by top advisors, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisers Stephen Hadley and M K Narayanan, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burn and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran.

However, if the deal does not materialise during the talks, negotiations would continue through the day and tomorrow, when Bush would come back here from a short visit to Hyderabad.

Shortly after Bush's arrival here last night, his National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns held talks with their counterparts M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran.