India welcomes latest developments on Nuclear deal

New Delhi, Dec 8 (UNI) Following consensus among lawmakers in Washington last night on passing a bill to amend the US law for implementation of the Nuke deal, the Bush Administration today advised India to accelerate negotiations with the IAEA while New Delhi welcomed the developments on Capitol Hill saying it looked forward to an early conclusion of a satisfactory Agreement.

The Bush Administration also made it clear that the deal was India-specific and ''well within the parameters'' of the July 18, 2005, agreement. It assured that it would fulfil all commitments made to the Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) in the agreement.

US Under-Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, who is currently in India and held talks with Indian officials during the past two days, told reporters that the arrangement was only meant for India and would not be made with any other country.

He said India needs now to start discussions with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the Safeguards Agreement.

India welcomed the developments and said it was looking forward to working with the US Administration for an early conclusion of a satisfactory Agreement.

''Government welcomes the outcome of the Conference in the US Congress that has reconciled the Waiver Bills earlier passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate respectively which would enable resumption of civilian nuclear energy cooperation between India and the USA,'' the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

Decks were cleared for the Congressional approval of the...

Picking up third para of DI 24, External--Indo-US Nuclear.

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