The United States inched towards a deal Thursday in its efforts to persuade nuclear supplier nations to lift a 34-year-old embargo on trade with India, a diplomat at negotiations said.
"One of the representatives said that a deal was 'within reach'," the diplomat told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity at the closed-door meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
The diplomat declined to predict how soon that might be.
It is the second time in two weeks that the highly secretive 45-member NSG, which controls the export and sale of nuclear technology, has met to try and agree a change to its rules.
Earlier, US delegation head, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns, had insisted Washington was making progress.
"I believe that we're making steady progress in this process and that we'll continue to make progress," Burns told reporters.
NSG rules ban nuclear trade with India because it refuses to sign the NPT, developed atomic bombs in secret and conducted its first nuclear test in 1974.
But Washington wants a special waiver so that the US can share with India its technology and know-how in the civilian nuclear field.
The deal, the US argues, will bring India into the NPT fold and help combat global warming by allowing India to develop low-polluting nuclear energy.