New Delhi: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that the 1-2-3 nuclear deal could be settled by the end of this year.
Rice acknowledged that there were difficulties in the negotiations but described the outlines of the deal as historic and path breaking.
One of the biggest issues in the deal has been US reluctance to allow India to reprocess spent atomic fuel - a key step in making weapons-grade nuclear material.
But Rice said she was confident that the deal could be salvaged.
Rice said, “I think this is a win-win if ever there were one, and I know that it has broken some of the old taboos about how to deal with this problem, but I am quite confident that if we keep after it and if we stay faithful to the agreements that our leaders signed, if we stay faithful to the legislation that we have passed, we can work out the 1-2-3 implementing agreement, we can get the approval of our Congress and ratification in India and we can move forward."
New Delhi and Washington have had several round of talks to finalise the implementing 1-2-3 agreement since the deal for the resumption of nuclear commerce was approved in principle by the US Congress last December, but differences persist over a couple of issues.
Rice said that the pact enjoyed bipartisan support in the United States and concluding it required that both Washington and New Delhi "stay faithful to the agreements that our leaders signed" and "stay faithful to the legislation we have passed."
India is unwilling to forego the right to conduct another nuclear test and reprocess spent fuel.
US says these conditions are required by the enabling Hyde Act, while India considers them beyond the pale of understanding reached by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W Bush on July 18, 2005 and March 2, 2006.
(With agency inputs)
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