IAEA safeguards agreement ready for finalisation: Saran

New Delhi, July 2 (UNI) Mr Shyam Saran, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's special envoy on the Indo-US nuclear deal, today said there was still enough time for going through the remaining three stages as the IAEA safeguards agreement was almost ready and would be concluded upon receiving the political go-ahead.

The second requirement of getting the approval of the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) would also not take much time as India had secured greater support from the group now than what was there a year ago, Mr Saran told the CNN-IBN news channel.

Once the NSG gave its clearance, the deal would go to the US Congress for its approval and this was expected in December, shortly before the end of the tenure of President George Bush, official sources said.

Mr Saran, who was Foreign Secretary earlier, also made it clear that Dr Singh would be attending the G8-G5 summit in Japan next week. Climate change is the main agenda of the summit, while Mr Saran is also the PM's special representative on the subject.

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