Friday, July 14 2006 18:36 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Amid hope of the Indo-US civil nuclear deal getting approval of the Congress by the month-end, the two countries have reviewed the progress and discussed the next steps in the process of lifting ban on trade with India in the atomic field.

Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, who met in Paris last night, also discussed the way forward towards concludinga bilateral nuclear agreement or 123 agreement, official sources said here today (July 14, 2006).

The two countries have held two rounds of expert-level discussions on the 123 agreement and covered '60 per cent' of the negotiations.

With both the countries aiming to conclude the agreement by October, further expert-level talks are expected shortly.

The civil nuclear deal, which entails change of US law to enable the country to have trade with India in the atomic field, has already been approved by the key international relations committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

It is now expected to be taken up by both Houses of the US Congress soon for debate and voting. The Bush Administration has expressed the hope that the bill will be cleared by the month-end.

"Saran and Burns also deliberated upon the progress in the negotiations on proposed India-specific safeguards agreement between India and the IAEA," the sources said.