Describing his talks with Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran as "good," US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said Washington would "stick" with the agreement signed on July 18 during a visit to Washington by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"I assured my friend Shyam that we will stick to our agreement ... and fulfill the obligations under the agreement," Burns told reporters in New Delhi.

Saran described the civilian nuclear cooperation issue as "complicated" but said the two sides should have an understanding on the agreement in place by the time President George W. Bush arrives on a visit to India early next year.

Burns said Washington was not asking India to fulfill any other conditions than the ones already in the agreement.

Under the terms of the accord, New Delhi has to separate civilian and military nuclear programs in exchange for advanced civilian nuclear technology.

India would place its civilian nuclear reactors under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection while Washington would lobby the 44-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group to allow civilian nuclear sales to India.

In return, Washington would give India access to technology normally reserved for nations that have signed the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The deal also commits Washington to persuade countries constituting the 44 member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to lift restrictions on India in civilian nuclear technology trade.

Burns conceded that some members of the NSG in a meeting in Washington on Wednesday had questions about lifting the embargo on civilian nuclear technology trade with India.

"I don't expect this to be an impediment," in implementation of the deal, he added.

The group normally restricts cooperation with countries, like India, that are not NPT members. India carried out nuclear weapon tests in May 1998, which were matched by rival Pakistan, leading to economic sanctions by the United States on both countries which were waived in 2001 in return for support in the "war on terrorism".

Saran said India had "already delivered" on some of its responsibilities under the agreement.

These included tightening export controls and "working with the United States in terms of new global standards for control of reprocessing and enrichment technologies being exported to third countries," he said.

"So we are already conforming to and becoming a partner in a global non-proliferation regime and we see ourselves, both the United States and India, as partners in that effort."

The ruling Congress party-led government last month was accused by opposition parties of caving in to US pressure in supporting an IAEA resolution that opens the door to reporting Iran to the UN Security Council for violating international nuclear safeguards.

The move came after US legislators warned that the nuclear deal, which must be approved by the US Congress, could be jeopardized if India refused to back firm action against Iran, which has signed the NPT and with which New Delhi has valuable energy ties.

Burns said the vote was "a very important sign that India is a responsible nuclear power."

He also repeated that the United States would like to see Iran return to talks with European countries on its nuclear program.

"Since the Indian government's very decisive and clear vote in the IAEA, that issue has disappeared in the US Congress and we now find substantial support in Congress for the agreement reached in July," he said.

Burns said he was confident of securing US Congressional approval ahead of Bush's visit.

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