The US, which has been seeking early conclusion of the Indo-US nuclear deal, said it wanted to ‘speed up’ the process and was ‘trying hard’ to convince the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to allow nuclear commerce with India."What is required is to convince the NSG of the non-proliferation benefits of the deal," Richard J K Stratford, Director at the Office of Nuclear Energy Affairs in the US State Department, said."We are also putting forth India's case for clean, unconditional exemption and we are trying hard on that," he said.Asked whether there was a definite time-frame for getting the NSG to change its rules, Stratford, who led the US delegation at the NSG meet, said, "yes, we have a time-frame and we have to focus on the non-proliferation benefits of the deal".About Thursday's briefing by the US to the 45-member grouping on the deal, he said, "it went off extremely well." There were 100 people from 33 countries who attended the two-and-a-half-hour-long interaction.
