Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, who is in the US, will travel directly to Vienna. He will be joined by R B Grover, Director, Strategic Affairs in the Department of Atomic Energy, and some other officials of the MEA.

Though India is not a member of the NSG, the delegation led by Menon will be camping in Vienna to meet envoys of the NSG countries, if necessary, to make further efforts to persuade them.

Indian officials said that while all efforts will be made to allay the apprehensions of the sceptic countries, India will not accept the waiver if it is laden with conditions.

India says the revised draft should be able to address the apprehensions that some of the countries have.

New Delhi maintains that if any country has any non-proliferation issues, those can be sorted out with them when bilateral agreements are signed.

A day after the editorial in Chinese People's Daily increased anxiety over the fate of the waiver, Beijing expressed hope that the NSG would be able to "strike a balance between nuclear non-proliferation and peaceful use" of atomic energy.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said Beijing has always played a "positive role" at the meetings of the NSG as it believes all countries have the right to develop nuclear energy while observing the obligations of the non-proliferation regime.

China expects the "relevant countries" would be able to "safeguard the effectiveness of the international non-proliferation regime," Jiang said without specifically naming India and the US in this context.

... contd.