'Not too many holes in Indo-US nuclear deal'

WASHINGTON: Stressing that the Indo-US civil nuclear deal is not an arms control agreement or a trade off for New Delhi's strategic programme, a top Indian negotiator said there are not 'too many gaps' in coming to the final understanding and that the two countries are 'closing' it.

"Basically, I do not think there are many problems in the gaps. The issue is how you take broad political principles and make them into legal language," Indian High Commissioner to Singapore S Jaishankar said at the Carnegie Endowment Conference International Non-proliferation Conference.

"The translation of the March 2006 and the July 2005 understandings into the 123-Agreement, it is really easier said than done because you are working on a legal document with a worst case contingency approach.

"You have to find very exacting, very rigorous language to reflect that. And that is where the challenge lies," Jaishankar, a top member of the negotiating team, said.

The Indian envoy was participating in a panel discussion on 'Forging Non Proliferation Consensus after Indo-US Civil Nuclear Cooperation'.

The top Indian envoy may be officially participating at the Carnegie Conference but privately he is said to be carrying on the dialogue on the 123-Agreement meeting in the sidelines with senior officials of the Bush administration dealing with the issue.

Jaishankar made it clear that New Delhi was looking for a 'clean and straightforward' exemption to the NSG guidelines on enrichment and reprocessing.