New Delhi US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns on Friday met Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and discussed steps to take forward the landmark Indo-US nuclear deal.
Ahead of his visit to India, Burns said, ?my trip to New Delhi is to focus on agreement on a timetable that will lead to decisions in the US Congress to change our law and an ultimate decision of the Indian Government to meet their commitments.?
?This cooperation that we're extending to India is unique. It is not going to be replicated to other countries," Burns had said in Paris.
He said that India differed markedly from Iran or Pakistan in that it has not been a source of nuclear proliferation and had been ?transparent? about its programme.
Burns is also expected to convey Washington's appreciation of India voting in favour of the IAEA resolution on Iran's nuclear programme.
India is concerned that Washington could be moving the goalposts on the deal agreed in July and would take this up at Friday's talks with Nicholas Burns, Indian officials said.
A senior Indian official told Reuters, "We expected this process to be difficult and we seem to be getting to the difficult part now."
Under the deal, agreed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W. Bush, the US would help India's civilian nuclear programme to boost growth in Asia's third-largest economy.
Washington also promised to help India to be treated as a permanent exception at the 44-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which bars nuclear cooperation with non-NPT members.
In return, India promised to separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities and place the civilian ones under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards to ensure US nuclear supplies are not diverted for military use.
The Bush administration has been confident about pushing the deal through US Congress despite many members, both Republican and Democrat, voicing concern that it could undermine global non-proliferation efforts.
Nicholas Burns, speaking at the Asia Society in New York this week, said that India must draft a plan to separate civil and military nuclear sectors so Washington could keep its side of the promise.
Boost Confidence
Indian officials said that both countries had agreed to move forward on nuclear deal and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had explicitly said that separation of civil and military facilities would happen in phases.
India was compromising its nuclear arms programme to boost its civilian sector, an issue that has sparked domestic political opposition.
?We will keep our side of the promise, but we need to know that they intend to do that too. Things have to be simultaneous. We have domestic political pressures just as they do, " Indian officials said.
In a policy turnaround last month, New Delhi voted with Washington at the IAEA to oppose Tehran's nuclear programme. The vote was seen as forced by the need to safeguard the India-US nuclear deal.
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