PM discusses revised NSG draft with Sonia

New Delhi, Aug 30 (PTI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
Saturday held deliberations with Congress president Sonia
Gandhi and some other senior colleagues over the nuclear issue
ahead of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (N.S.G.) meeting in
Vienna.

The meeting, also attended by External Affairs Minister
Pranab Mukherjee and Ahmed Patel, Political Secretary to the
Congress president, is understood to have assessed the revised
draft prepared by the U.S. for consideration of the N.S.G. at
its meeting on September 4-5.

The meeting is understood to have deliberated upon the
situation in view of the original N.S.G. draft waiver being
amended because of concerns expressed by various countries.

The Congress leadership is believed to have weighed
options available if things do not work out as desired at the
upcoming meeting of the N.S.G.

Singh earlier held similar consultations with
Mukherjee, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Atomic
Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar on the issue amid
the hope that 45-nation grouping will give a "clean" and
"unconditional" waiver.

Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, who is in the US
and in touch with the American officials there, is also in
constant contact with Mukherjee and Kakodkar over the issue.

Menon will be travelling to Vienna for the N.S.G.
meeting directly from the US.

The N.S.G. failed to arrive at a final decision on the
proposed India waiver at the August 21-22 meet after several
countries raised non-proliferation issues and proposed around
50 amendments to the draft before it could be considered.

In the revised draft of the waiver, New Delhi is
expecting "minimal changes" and hopes that it will have a
language and "semantics which can be sold" to the people of
the country without any problems, sources said.