A joint statement released at the end of the three-day dialogue detailed the road map both sides would take over the next few months, so as to enable them to save face before India signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) by September.

Specifically, the statement alluded to the fact that the leaders of both teams, External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, would remain in close contact so as to mark progress. ``While these contacts continue, both sides will endeavour to create a positive atmosphere for advancing their relations.''

The phrase, sources in the Ministry of External Affairs said, is a euphemism for the belief here that Washington must first show goodfaith by lifting at least some of the ``coercive measures'' placed after the nuclear tests: either the economic sanctions, so far partially lifted, must completely go, or the Entities List, under which 200 Indian companies have been banned from using US exports, must be reduced, or at least the bilateral military training programme (IMET) should be resumed.

``Clearly, there is linked progress on this issue,'' the Ministry sources said. ``The US side has to determine what constitutes a `positive atmosphere' with their own Congress, while the Government will attempt to de-demonise the attitude at home towards the CTBT,'' they added.On India's part, then, the Government will double its efforts towards gaining public and Opposition opinion in favour of the CTBT. By the end of February, Parliament will sit again, and the Government is likely to use the session to develop a national consensus on a CTBT signature.

The joint statement also recognised that the amount of time devoted to the seven rounds of dialoguewas ``unprecedented'' in Indo-US relations, that this was, indeed, ``time well-spent laying the foundation for a new, broad-based relationship that has eluded (both nations) in the past.''By that both sides are said to refer not only to the acrimonious period that followed the nuclear tests, but to the last 50 years when the relationship was never allowed to reach its full potential during the Cold War years.Interestingly, both sides are also now beginning to talk about resuming bilateral defence cooperation as envisaged in the 1995 ``agreed minute'', which was suspended in the wake of the nuclear tests.

This includes the military and educational training programme (IMET), but touches upon other issues of mutual concern, such as cooperation between the Ministry of Defence and the Pentagon and the transfer of technology, envisaged in the 1995 document.

According to the road map, expert-level groups will meet in March for follow-up talks on export controls. The respective delegations will also meet inGeneva at the Conference on Disarmament (CD) to consult frequently on the fissile material cut-off treaty and the possibility of other multilateral initiatives. The US is the current chairman of the CD, which started its deliberations in Geneva about a fortnight ago, and is now responsible for setting up the ad hoc committee where the FMCT negotiations will be carried out.