The US Embassy issued the following statement on Saturday on the visit of R Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, to New Delhi:

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns visited New Delhi May 31 � June 2, 2007, for meetings with Indian government and political leaders to review the new global partnership the United States and India have established across a broad range of areas. He had productive meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, and other senior officials.

The American and Indian delegations had useful discussions and made some progress on the civil nuclear agreement. While there has been good cooperation, more work remains to be done to complete arrangements that will permit a civil-nuclear agreement to be finalised between the United States and India.

We look forward to a final agreement as it is indisputably in the interest of both governments.