NEW DELHI, March 2: Egged on by their leaders, US and Indian officials burnt the midnight oil to seal the landmark nuclear deal on Thursday. President George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hailed the breakthrough as ‘historic’ at a press conference in New Delhi after talks at the princely residence of a former Indian ruler.

“They were the ones who made the decision to go forward to this deal that we were able to negotiate,” said Nicholas Burns, the US Undersecretary of State.

“There was a very strong signal from them,” he said.

Mr Burns was in the Indian capital last week on a last-minute trip to try to wrap up the deal before Thursday’s summit, but went home empty-handed due to several contentious issues.

But when Bush flew to New Delhi on Wednesday for a three-day trip, his National Security Advisor Steve Hadley and Burns knuckled down for talks with their Indian counterparts that extended to a midnight pow-wow at the Indian prime minister’s office.

Among the key contentious issues, according to one US official, was the US position that India give a commitment to place most of its civilian nuclear reactors, including its so-called fast breeders, under global safeguards.

New Delhi, on the other hand, sought firm assurances from Washington for the supply of nuclear fuel to drive the reactors.

Both sides stuck to their guns up to the last minute before the leaders called for the stalemate to be broken.

The “interlocking issues” came together at the end and “we couldn’t resolve one without resolving all of them,” the US official said.

“And the Indians felt very, very strong. They had to have assurances about fuel supply and we felt very strongly we have to have permanent safeguards in all future civilian nuclear reactors, and so we were able to agree on both of those issues.

“They needed one and we needed another. Those were the most important issues,” the official said.

India then agreed to place 14 of its 22 nuclear reactors under international safeguards, to be phased in between 2006 and 2014. “We started with four reactors... so this is a big advancement,” the American official said.

New Delhi also agreed to commit to place all future civilian reactors under international safeguards.

The nuclear fuel supply from the United States is key to fueling the civilian reactors that India would build in the future to produce energy to power its rapidly growing economy.

The agreement effectively ends India’s status as a nuclear pariah, even though it refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. —AFP