New Delhi, June 15 (IANS) India and the US have narrowed their differences over the proposed civil nuclear deal after three days of talks here and the two sides will meet soon to thrash out pending issues, officials said Thursday.

"The two negotiating teams held intensive discussions over three days here and were able to narrow their differences on a number of draft provisions of the proposed agreement," external affairs ministry spokesperson Navtej Sarna said.

"Officials of the two sides have a much better appreciation of their respective legal, political positions," he said, referring to the talks on a proposed Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, also called the 123 Agreement.

"Pending issues will now require internal consultations on both sides with a view to jointly formulating a draft, which meets with the approvals of both sides," Sarna said.

"The progress we have achieved so far makes us confident that we would be able to arrive at a text that conforms to our well-known positions."

The Indian side at the three-day talks was headed by Joint Secretary (America) S. Jaishankar and included officials from the Department of Atomic Energy that is under the direct charge of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The three-member US side was led by Richard J.K. Stratford, director, Office of Nuclear Energy Affairs at the US State Department. It included officials from the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

According to Sarna, the officials also discussed the draft agreements exchanged in London last month when India's Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran met with US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns.

"This would enable the two sides to conclude the proposed 123 Agreement once the US Congress has passed appropriate legislation to enable a full civilian nuclear energy cooperation between India and the US," he said.

India and the US had pledged to cooperate in civilian nuclear energy in a joint statement after a meeting in Washington in July last year between US President George W. Bush and Manmohan Singh.

This intent was formalised during Bush's visit to New Delhi in March and plans were worked out for separating India's civil and military nuclear facilities.

The proposed pact on which talks were held this week gets its name from Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954, which requires a bilateral cooperation pact to be signed first before a broad nuclear deal with another country.