The United States and India vied Tuesday to revive a historic nuclear deal struck nearly two years ago that has languished owing to critical differences over its implementation, officials said.
After meeting over dinner Monday, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns and Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon got down to business for formal talks on the nuclear impasse.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due to "stop by" for a chat with Menon, who is the Indian foreign ministry's top bureaucrat.
"Our overall sense is that the Indians came here with some constructive ideas, and that there's a possibility that we could move the process forward based on these ideas, although that's not a foregone conclusion," McCormack said.
"That doesn't mean that they're going to be able to move this as quickly as we had hoped - we'll see - as a result of these meetings. But we are confident in the long run that we will get this deal done," he said.