While much of the political and diplomatic world has been rather mystified by the interminable parleys between the two sides, India's ambassador to the US Naresh Chandra, one of the principal interlocutors in the ongoing dialogue, provided a glimpse of the progress the talks had made, and in the process, disabused the notion that the exchanges were sterile or deadlocked.

According to Chandra, while New Delhi is moving towards accommodating some of Washington's non-proliferation concerns, the Clinton administration has eased some of the sanctions and is likely to relax the curbs even more in the coming days. This includes restoring World Bank loans and paringdown the so-called Entities list, under which some 200 Indian firms were sanctioned.

More pertinently, the latest London round of talks has set the stage for President Clinton's visit to India, regardless of the developments in Pakistan.

``It is safe to assume the President will visit India because the statements which have been made indicate that his interest in going to South Asia remains. He is not going to allow the fact that he is not able to visit Pakistan to stand in the way,'' Chandra told Indian journalists at a briefing.

Indications are Clinton will come to India on a four or five-day visit in mid-to-late February or early March. He may then go to Bangladesh. The President's visit will be preceded by a visit to India by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Suggesting that after the Clinton trip, ``India would be on the travel map of US Presidents and the US would be on the travel map of Indian Prime Ministers on a much more regular basis,'' Chandra said the visit ``should send a signalof a new era in India-US relations.''

``I think that is also the keen desire of the President himself. He has been repeatedly giving a policy indication that he would like to see a much greater improvement in cooperation with India -- I have a feeling that he would like that to be part of his legacy,'' he added.

As a prelude to the Presidential visit, the two sides have exchanged a wish list in London ``to create the right atmosphere,'' Chandra said. The London round of talks had gone beyond non-proliferation issues and involved subjects the two sides could announce during the Clinton visit.

``We have developed a much more concrete agenda for the future and this also includes steps that could possibly be taken to improve the atmosphere for the time the President's proposed visit takes place,'' Chandra said.

US officials too confirmed the talks were making progress and a Presidential visit was almost certain though the ``dates are not set in stone.''

Officials from both sides clarified that thePresident's remarks in a report to the Congress that there had been ``little progress'' in talks was in reference to the last six months only (since it was a six-monthly report to Congress) when the dialogue between the two sides halted because of the elections in India.

Ambassador Chandra though said the London talks picked up from where they left off in January and also took up the developments in Pakistan and the US Senate action rejecting the CTBT.

In fact, so intense were the parleys that when the two sides met in London on November 16 after a break of several months, the exchanges started with a breakfast meeting between External Affairs Minister Jawant Singh and US Deputy Secretary Strobe Talbott, and continued right through the day ending with dinner.

While declining to provide details to preserve the ``sanctity'' of the dialogue, officials from both sides say this is the most intensive and extensive talks ever between the two countries.

While some Indian analysts worry that New Delhi isbeing worn down a persistent Clinton administration, Indian officials say for the first time they are getting Washington to listen and look at things from India's point of view.

US officials acknowledge that and agree that this is the most extensive talks they have held with India. ``It took us years and years of talking with the Soviet Union to finally reach the kind of agreements and understanding we reached. Although the context is not the same, those talks show the time frame that these matters require,'' one official said.