Nicholas Burns

New Delhi, Feb. 23: US under secretary of state Nicholas Burns today said “some differences” were hampering the implementation of the nuclear deal with India and he was unsure if it would be ready by the time President George W. Bush reaches Delhi next week.

Burns held talks with Indian foreign secretary Shyam Saran in New Delhi on resolving differences over the separation plan for India’s nuclear facilities.

Official sources said the talks today were informal and a meeting of the Indo-US joint working group on nuclear cooperation would be held tomorrow.

“We do not know yet whether there would be a deal in time for Bush’s visit. We are trying our best,” Burns said after the informal talks.

The negotiations are stuck on the separation plan and the number of nuclear facilities to be placed under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. India has ruled out exposing its indigenous fast breeder reactor programme to inspection.

Officials said that India was ready to place around 15 nuclear facilities under IAEA inspections but the US was insisting on more.

Washington has also shown flexibility in accepting the Indian condition to leave the fast breeder reactor out for some time.

The Indian atomic establishment wants the fast breeder reactor to be kept out till 2020. But the US is open to the idea of giving it a breather only till 2010.