NEW DELHI - The United States and India will resume talks on a landmark nuclear energy cooperation deal which was passed by the US Senate last month, a report said.

The United States and India will resume talks on a landmark nuclear energy cooperation deal which was passed by the US Senate last month, a report said. The US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, seen here in November 2006, is likely to arrive in the Indian capital on 07 December 2006.[AFP]

The US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns is likely to arrive in the Indian capital December 7, a day after the joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate meets, the Press Trust of India reported.

Burns will hold talks with Shyam Saran, Indian pointman on the agreement reached last year between the two countries during a visit here by US President George W. Bush, it said.

The US official will also meet Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon for talks, the news agency quoted unnamed government officials as saying.

The agreement is the centrepiece of India's new relationship with Washington after decades of Cold War chill and is part of the import-dependent nation's bid to increase its energy sources to sustain its booming economy.

Nuclear power supplies around three percent of the fuel needs of the country of more than one billion people, but India hopes the figure will rise to at least 20 percent within two decades.

India's top official in the nuclear establishment, meanwhile, warned Delhi will not do business in atomic energy with the US unless American lawmakers take on board its concerns while finalising legislation linked to the deal.

"We expect all our concerns to be addressed and unless the US rules are modified to take care of our country's interest, the business between the two countries is not possible," Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar said.

The military and sections of India's political establishment have expressed fears the deal could hurt the defence capability of the country, which has fought three wars with nuclear rival Pakistan.

The nuclear watchdog chief said the final legislation should address India's requirements.

"The final legislation to be made by the US should be such that it is acceptable to India if business has to be done with them -- as a real cooperation," Kakodkar said in Mumbai, India's commercial capital.

The accord has been seen as controversial because the US Congress had to exempt New Delhi from the requirements of the US Atomic Energy Act, which bans nuclear sales to countries outside the Non Proliferation Treaty, such as India.

US weapons experts also warn that such a deal would make it harder to enforce rules against nuclear renegades Iran and North Korea and set a dangerous precedent for other nations with nuclear ambitions.