New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) Even as India and the US continue their talks here on finalising a bilateral civil nuclear pact, the prime minister's special envoy on the India-US nuclear deal, Shyam Saran, is off to Australia and New Zealand to persuade them to back New Delhi in the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.

Saran, New Delhi's chief interlocutor for the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, is likely to hold talks with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, senior ministers and officials over the next two days.

During his visit to India last year, Howard had struck a cautious note saying that it had yet to make up its mind on supplying uranium to India, a non-signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Subsequently, Australia, which has one of the world's largest uranium reserves, has, however, indicated that it may sell uranium to India and support New Delhi in the NSG provided it signs a bilateral civil nuclear pact with Canberra.

Saran will also go to New Zealand to seek support in the NSG.

India plans to step up its diplomacy with the NSG countries before the nuclear cartel holds its plenary meeting in Cape Town next month.

Meanwhile, officials from India and the US continued negotiations to finalise a workable bilateral civilian nuclear pact, with New Delhi insisting on the right to reprocess spent fuel and to stockpile fuel.

The crucial talks, which began Monday and are aimed at finalising a large part of the text of the 123 Agreement, named after Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act, were likely to continue Wednesday.

The 123 Agreement, which will be the sole legal document to govern the terms of civil nuclear commerce between India and the US, will be crucial in influencing the NSG to amend its guidelines in favour of global nuclear trade with India.

India is trying hard to ensure that the controversial portions of the Hyde Act passed last year like the ban on nuclear testing is not included in the 123 Agreement.

The US legislation excludes the sale of equipment and technologies related to enrichment, reprocessing and heavy water production