'US to make sure nuclear liability doesn't become an irritant'

Washington, Jul 23: The US would make sure that the issue of nuclear liability does not become an irritant in its relationship with India, a top State Department official has said.

"It is not yet an irritant, but we want to make sure that it doesn't become an irritant. We're getting now to the end game in this whole process," Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake told reporters at a news conference held yesterday at the Foreign Press Center.

He said that India was committed to bringing its liability regime into conformance with the Convention on Supplementary Compensation "India is committed now to ratify the CSC by the end of the year, and it''s also committed to bringing its liability regime into conformance with the CSC. So how it does that is very, very important," he said.

"We want to be sure that having expended so much of our own political capital in getting the civil nuclear deal through beginning in 2005 and getting our own 123 agreement approved by our Congress and then by the entire NSG "....We want to be sure that our companies are going to benefit from this and that Indian companies are going to benefit from this. Indian companies themselves have a lot of concerns now about the liability regime." Blake said.

PTI