IAEA chief Mohammad El Baradei met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Thursday and is understood to have discussed civil nuclear energy issues with him.The nuclear issue is believed to have come up in context of the country's growing energy needs for which India is in the process of finalising an atomic agreement with the US.El Baradei is in favour of ending the restrictive regime against India in the nuclear field to enable the country meet its increasing energy needs.El Baradei, who is on a five-day visit to the country, was apprised of the details of the Indo-US nuclear deal by the Indian leaders and officials.After meeting External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday, the IAEA Director General said he wanted India to make full use of atomic energy for its growth.India is to sign a safeguards agreement with IAEA to operationalize the deal with the US. However, in view of the Left opposition, no formal discussions on the agreement took place during El Baradei's meetings.The UN nuclear watchdog chief said there was no deadline for negotiating the agreement and the agency would wait till New Delhi is ready to discuss with it after the "domestic political dialogue" is over.He suggested that negotiating the India-specific safeguards agreement would not be difficult as IAEA already has four such arrangements with this country.
