Differences on N-deal could be ironed out: Burns

New Delhi, June 1: US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns today said India and the US were ''working hard'' to resolve ''as soon as possible'' their differences over the nuclear deal, an important component of the bilateral ties.

''I think we are working hard. We are working well and let's hope it will be as soon as possible,'' Mr Burns told reporters after his meeting with Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma.

He was replying to a question on the progress of the fresh round of talks and how long it would take to thrash out the differences on the language of the proposed 123 agreement which would operationalise the July 2005 nuclear deal.

India and the US understood how important this agreement was to their relationship. ''It is without any question in the best interests of both the countries.'' Mr Burns said he had very good discussions with Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and Mr Shyam Saran, special emissary on the nuclear deal, yesterday. He was continuing the discussions with Mr Menon today.

The main differences arise from India's insistence that there should not be any deviation from the 2005 deal under which India would retain the right to conduct nuclear tests and reprocess uranium which were vital for its three-stage programme and would get fuel supplies without any interruption.

The US official had earlier said that 90 per cent of the problems had been dealt with.

UNI