US may extend July deadline for N-deal, says White House official

Mumbai: While there is a "little bit more time" for the Indo-US nuclear deal to be passed in the US Congress than the July deadline suggested by the senate foreign relations committee chairman Joseph Biden, the Bush administration has stressed that any internal pressure within India to quickly move the deal forward was "good".

Biden had said that the nuclear deal has to be taken up in Congress by June and ratified by July, and that any new US administration will "renegotiate" the deal.

"We have a little bit more time than that, obviously, on the calendar before the end of the president s term. But if there is internal pressure from inside India for them to move more quickly, I think that is good. And I saw a report today that said that there are some elements within India that are very supportive of getting the deal done." White House press secretary Dana Perino said.

India, meanwhile, has opened another round of talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to negotiate the India-specific safeguards agreement which is crucial for the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.

This round of negotiations is expected to complete the draft of the "agreed text" of the crucial new template specific to India and the meeting is expected to go on till Friday, an IAEA official said.

The Indian delegation is headed by top Department of Atomic Energy official Ravi B Grover.

India and IAEA had held four rounds of talks in Vienna since November last, apart from several informal consultations to work out a new template on safeguards specifically for India, a key requirement before the agreement comes into force.

The US had recently said the negotiations with IAEA and nuclear suppliers' group (NSG) would have to be wound up by May failing which New Delhi will not get a deal.