India hopeful of positive outcome of talks with IAEA

New Delhi, Feb 12: New Delhi today hoped for a positive outcome of the ongoing negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at Vienna over India-specific safeguards, necessary to operationalise the civilian nuclear deal with the US.

''I have always worked in a positive way...I am optimistic that the negotiations with the IAEA will have a positive outcome,'' Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairman Dr Anil Kakodkar told journalists on the sidelines of an awards function here. He said negotiations with the IAEA in Vienna were in progress. However, a lot of technical details needed to be worked out.

''There are lot of technical details, which need to be discussed and worked out,'' said Dr Kakodkar, who is also the Union Atomic Energy secretary.

''We are approaching the deal (Indo-US nuclear agreement) step-by-step and working towards finding a way.'' Dr Kakodkar said India had sought international cooperation in the nuclear sector to meet its growing energy requirements.

''We have several domestic programmes, but those do not meet our growing energy requirements. That is why we are seeking international cooperation for additionalities on the energy front,'' he added.

Dr Kakodkar declined comment on the opposition to the agreement by some political parties, apparently referring to the Left and the BJP.

India and the IAEA have held several rounds of talks in Vienna to finalise the draft pact, which the Congress-led government has to place before the UPA-Left panel to get the political go ahead for the deal with the US.

Once the IAEA prepares a final agreed text, which has to be cleared by its Board of Governors, the US will hold talks with the 45-member Nuclear Supplier's Group (NSG) to get a clean and unconditional exemption for New Delhi to do global nuclear trade.

UNI