Talks on 123 Agreement soon: PM

NEXT STEP: The PM says talks will commence shortly to operationalise the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.

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New Delhi: Just three days after the US Ambassador to India, David Mulford, described as "very delicate" the current status of the Indo-US nuclear agreement, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said India will soon begin talks with US on the 123 agreement.

On Friday, Mulford had told CNN-IBN that the US administration was eagerly waiting for India to come back to it with its version of the draft on the nuclear agreement.

The Prime Minister said the talks will commence very shortly to operationalise the Indo-US civil nuclear deal and India is going to raise its concerns with the US administartion during the talks. "There are issues," he said.

"There are concerns we have to discuss with the US administration. Some of these things will be addressed in the 123 (bilateral) agreement on which negotiations will be held very shortly," PTI auoted the PM as saying on board his plane bringing him back to India from Philippines, where the PM had gone to attend the Indo-ASEAN and East-Asia Summits in Cebu.

Singh said there was general support that civil nuclear energy be considered as an option to meet the need for clean energy and that this deserved greater attention of the international community.

On the Siachen issue, the PM said 'progress' was being made by India and Pakistan, but it was 'premature' to say that a stage for agreement 'is being reached'. "We have to take a holistic view of relations with Pakistan. We have had several rounds of composite dialogue in which Siachen, Sir Creek and other issues figured. We are making progress," he said.