The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, New Delhi

India said on Friday it hoped to wrap up talks this month with the U.N. nuclear watchdog for a safeguards pact needed to advance a controversial civilian nuclear energy deal with the United States.

The deal has been virtually written off by analysts following opposition from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's communist allies, who have threatened to end their support and force early elections if the government pursued it.

Government ministers and bureaucrats, however, say they have not given up on it and are trying to convince the communists while going through the steps needed to clinch the deal, even as it is running out of time.

Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said Indian experts had held three rounds of talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for a pact to monitor civilian nuclear reactors that would be opened to scrutiny under the deal.