White House Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto was asked in his briefing as to where the two sides stand on the accord, given that Washington's pointsman for the deal, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, is scheduled to depart the State Department by the end of March. "We'll continue our cooperation in order to achieve that goal of getting the agreement completed," Fratto said.
Both need to tackle Kashmiri militants together, Nicholas Burns said.
There is still time to take a decision, a top US diplomat said.
The US has said India should look toward Central Asian nations.
Indian team led by foreign secretary will be back at the US State Department for negotiations early Friday and expect to be involved in some pretty intensive discussions, sources said.
Terming as "outrageous" Iran's comparison of its nuclear programme with India, the United States Friday said Tehran needs to face the "penalty" as it had crossed "so many international red lines".
Keen to conclude the civil nuclear deal by the year-end, India and the US will hold another round of high level talks in July to sort out differences that have been nagging the negotiations for months.
Bolton, who is the chief US envoy to the United Nations, said involving the Security Council will not displace the IAEA, but will "strengthen the hand" of the agency in dealing with Iran.
A first look of the Foreign Secretary's meeting with Rice.
IAEA meeting could vote against Iran: US
"It is not going to be replicated to other countries," US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said.
India has agreed to separate its nuclear and military facilities, which would take time and the US has to change domestic laws to resume nuclear supplies to Indian reactors.
'President Bush seems to have been impressed with the candour, the credibility, the honesty of purpose of the prime minister.' National Security Adviser M K Narayanan in an exclusive interview.
Saran and Burns will have deliberations on conceptual issues that have an impact and bearing on the negotiations on the agreement.
Visiting Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns brushed aside criticism that the US was trying to dictate to India on the Iran nuclear issue.
The mediators also praised India's role in the developments in the island nation.
Burns was the Chief Guest and spoke at the Republic Day Reception hosted by the Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen at his residence on Friday.
"It is surprising that on such a vital issue, the government has sought to keep political parties, Parliament and the nuclear scientific community in the dark," said the CPI (M).
The two countries are aiming at sorting out differences particularly on issues like reprocessing right, perpetuity of fuel supplies and continuance of the civilian nuclear cooperation if India were to conduct an atomic test.
'If we approach the 123 Agreement as a device to open the door to international cooperation and not as a fundamental document, it may be possible to find the middle path soon.'
The key negotiators of the two sides will aim at resolving differences on aspects like reprocessing right and continuity of civil nuclear cooperation if India were to conduct an atomic test in future.
The senior State Department official stressed not only the kind of distances that have been traversed in the last several months -- over and beyond the civilian nuclear initiative -- but also in looking at what is in store down the road.
New Delhi is said to have given back the blueprint saying it was capable of going about on its own.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and\nhis reaction was "constructive" and "not overly problematic."
The United States has dismissed reports of propping up India as a counterweight to China by agreeing to scrap the 30-year-old ban on nuclear exports to New Delhi.
Noting that 'progress' was being made in parleys, the sources said the two countries were making 'every effort to conclude or substantially conclude the deal before the visit of President Bush.'
China has been an aggressor against India along the Himalayan border, a top American diplomat nominated by President Joe Biden as his next envoy to Beijing has told lawmakers, stating that the US must hold the Chinese government accountable for failing to play by the rules.
India and the United States can work together not to fight an 'authoritarian' China but to make it observe the rule of law, former US diplomat and Harvard professor Nicholas Burns said on Friday in a conversation with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Meetings with nuclear scientists likely.
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