Ahead of N-vote, Burns, Saran meet in Paris

The Bush Administration is in touch with the Congress to ensure that some of the difficult elements in the Bill are modified or dropped in the final versions. Burns is said to have briefed Saran on the efforts being made by the administration on these issues.

India had pointed out to the US that it was not comfortable with some elements in both versions of the Bill, which have been passed by a healthy majority of the relevant committees in both chambers of the Congress.

In the Senate version, this relates to not giving India reprocessing technology. While this may not be an immediate concern, New Delhi would prefer not to have it as part of the law in the long run.

Then, there is the issue of the Bill stating that US will stop civil nuclear cooperation in case India violates NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group) and MTCR (Missile Technology Control Regime) guidelines. While India is committed to adhere to these guidelines, the problem is that there are several minor violations which happen when companies do trade and that should not lead to termination of all cooperation.

Even NSG has graded responses for different kinds of violations. To insert such a condition in a law, sources say, may prove detrimental and needs further clarification.

Besides this, Saran and Burns also discussed the sequencing of the remaining steps including the signing of a safeguards agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency. For India, this has always been the last step in the process, but Bill in the House of Representatives places it as a pre-condition.