Mirage upgrade deal may not keep Sarko date

NEW DELHI: Days ahead of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to India, the government on Wednesday said the $2.1 billion Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft-upgradation deal will not be signed during the trip. Foreign ministry officials said negotiations were still under way and it wouldn't be possible to finalize the deal in the next few days.

Sarkozy will arrive in India on December 4 and is scheduled to hold talks with PM Manmohan Singh two days later. India and France are currently negotiating upgrade of 50 such fighter jets.

"It will not be signed during this visit but I am sure negotiations and discussions are still going on. It doesn't require an agreement to be signed during the visit," said joint secretary (EW) T P Seetharam. The two sides were earlier said to be trying to time the inking of the deal with Sarkozy's visit to India.

Seetharam, in fact, said it was not the practice to have defence supply agreements signed during high-profile visits and that India was not expecting any defence deal to be signed during the trip.

On issue of civil nuclear cooperation though, Seetharam said a framework agreement to build two European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) was under negotiations but added that it may or may not be signed by Areva and NPCIL during the visit. "The proposal was for supplying two EPRs initially, which will gradually go up to six," he said.