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".
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.
Visiting Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns brushed aside criticism that the US was trying to dictate to India on the Iran nuclear issue.
It will end India's nuclear isolation, he noted. Ahead of his visit here, Burns said last week that 90 per cent of the work has been completed and he would be making the "final effort".
New Delhi is said to have given back the blueprint saying it was capable of going about on its own.
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.
The mediators also praised India's role in the developments in the island nation.
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.'
"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 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.
Red Square and VDNKh easily rank among the most striking places I've visited -- both for their historical significance and architectural splendour.
My admiration for Russian culture, vision and ambition grew with every step as I clocked the miles, Nitin Sathe tells us after a visit to Moscow and St Petersburg.
The India-US nuclear deal was aimed at ending India's nuclear isolation and nuclear apartheid, recalls Rup Narayan Das.
'This nuclear agreement is a sign for the rest of the world of the great American respect for India,' says US Under Secretary of State R Nicholas Burns.
The Chinese army's Eastern Theatre Command stated in a terse statement that it had conducted 'combined combat readiness patrols and joint firepower strike drills' surrounding Taiwan.
'Pakistan,' says former US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R Nicholas Burns, 'has an obligation to work with India and to give India the type of support needed to ensure that these types of attacks will not occur again. Therefore you cannot hide behind the definition of non-state actors. Every government has a responsibility to control the situation on its own territory. India needs the kind of reassurances from Islamabad that has not yet been forthcoming.'
Seeking to dispel their apprehensions, Saran is expected to highlight New Delhi's impeccable record on non-proliferation front.
In a scathing indictment of the nuclear liability bill passed by Indian Parliament, Nicholas Burns, former under secretary of state in the Bush administration, has warned that if the bill was not amended it could sound the death knell of the historic Indo-US nuclear deal and adversely impact on the envisaged US-India strategic partnership.
The two sides will seek to wind up the year-long negotiations ahead of the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W Bush in Germany next week on the sidelines of the G-8 Summit.
Karl F Inderfurth, who was Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs in the Clinton administration, and Nicholas Burns, who was Under Secretary of State in the Bush Administration, told rediff.com that Obama's endorsement during his address to a joint session of Parliament thus made his visit to India transformational too in a sense as had the trip by Clinton in March of 2000 and Bush in March 2006.
Burns and other senior administration officials had hoped that the negotiations over the 123 Agreement last month in New Delhi would resolve any pending issues so it could be sent up to Congress for review.
India is particularly interested in modifying provisions pertaining to conditional access to fuel reprocessing and caveats about future nuclear tests
'If they are implying that they are going to have Congressional action by the time Bush goes to India, I believe the administration is setting out a very tough task for itself,' feels South Asia expert Robert M Hathaway.
Noting India's strategic importance in American efforts to limit the Chinese influence, a former top diplomat on Friday said the United States should include New Delhi in its East Asia policy.
Burns, the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs who played a key role in clinching the deal, will address a talk on "India and Pakistan: On the Heels of President Bush's Visit" on Monday.
The Iranian nuclear issue, which threatens to snowball into a major issue, is also likely to figure at the two-day talks.
According to sources in the Ministry of External Affairs, the text will be simultaneously released in Washington and New Delhi.
Former Indian Foreign Secretary, Shyam Saran will headline a major conference this week on the expectations and consequences of the US-India Nuclear Agreement, hosted by The Brookings Institution,
Nicholas Burns noted that the Administration had been informed the Senate and House would meet in the early part of December to reconcile both bills.
Garcetti, 50, who served as the co-chair of Biden's presidential campaign, was initially considered for the Cabinet.
No dilution of language in the House and Senate bills is likely during the House-Senate conference that will meet on the United States-India civilian nuclear agreement when Congress reconvenes this week.
Both sides, however, refused to provide a timeline.
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.
In what diplomatic observers have described as "a make or break" round of negotiations, senior US and Indian officials held several hours of intense discussions at the State Department on Tuesday in an attempt to seal the 123 Agreement.
