Indo-US nuclear talks to continue today

WASHINGTON: In an indication that the talks on Indo-US civil nuclear deal has entered a decisive stage, the high-level Indian negotiating team has extended its stay and is expected to continue with its discussions today.

Indian foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and his team were due to depart late last night while the leader of the delegation, India's National Security Adviser M K Narayanan was scheduled to leave this morning.

Both these departures have now been postponed. The Indian team led by foreign secretary will be back at the US State Department for negotiations early today and is expected to be involved in some pretty intensive discussions, sources said.

The State Department team will be led by the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns who will be assisted by his team of officials.

Earlier, Burns said that the negotiating teams just needed to go "the extra couple of feet" and that the two sides had overcome many of the outstanding issues.

"We have overcome many of the outstanding issues. We just need to go the extra couple of feet," Burns told State Department reporters.

"We are in an extra innings," Burns said referring to a baseball term. "We haven't given up and I'm very hopeful we might have an agreement."