IAEA, Indian officials to hold talks next week

New Delhi, July 7: A team of officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will arrive here tomorrow for holding talks with Indian officials on carrying forward the Indo-US nuclear agreement.

The two-day discusions, beginning on Monday, are expected to focus on India-specific Nuclear Safeguards Agreement that needs to be put in place as one of the requirements for the final implementation of the deal, sources said.

The India-Specific Agreement will enable the IAEA to supervise India's civilian nuclear facilities, according to the 'separation plan' presented by India.

India has identified 14 of its 22 nuclear facilities as civilian which would be open to international supervision.

Officials of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the External Affairs Ministry had held an ''in-house'' meeting to ''finetune'' the strategy to be adopted during the discussions.

The IAEA Safeguards Agreement is one of the crucial steps towards the implementation of the deal in addition to the US amendment in law and approval by the 45-nation nuclear lobby Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

UNI