US President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed after talks in Washington Tuesday that "strengthening high technology trade between their countries is in the spirit of their strategic dialogue and partnership," a joint statement said.

Expanding on the statement, Singh's economic advisor Montek Singh Ahluwalia said Wednesday that on the economic front, "the principal action" the United States had to take to advance collaboration was "removal of the technology transfer controls."

He said the US government had assured India that a "high level review" of the technology restrictions was underway, four years after the two countries signed a landmark civilian nuclear agreement.

"We are very hopeful that as a result of that review there will be a significant easing of technology controls," said Ahluwalia, speaking at a forum held by the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

The controls were part of the 1998-imposed economic sanctions on India after it conducted a series of nuclear weapons tests.

They prohibit American companies from exporting certain goods and services to various Indian entities without first obtaining an export license.

However, relations between the two countries have improved significantly in recently years.

They signed a landmark pact in 2005 for export of US nuclear technology to India but implementation has been delayed as the two countries work out complex international regulations governing such trade.

"Many of our companies still have impediments put in their way in a matter of transfer of technology," said Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Indian government's planning commission.

He said that even in US circles, "these restrictions are actually not achieving any security enhancement kind of concerns."

Obama and Singh had said in a joint statement that while they agreed that strengthening high technology trade was in line with the new spirit of partnership, "shared commitment to technology security" was critical.

Singh said the lifting of US export controls on high technology exports to India "will open vast opportunities for giant research and development efforts."

"It will enable US industry to benefit from the rapid economic and technological transformation that is now underway in our country," he said.

On the civilian nuclear deal that was clinched during the administration of Obama's predecessor George W. Bush, Ahluwalia said, "there are two or three things that have to be done to make it fully operational from the point of view of the US."

One critical component of the deal, expected to open up 150 billion dollars worth of businesses mainly to American companies, is for the United States and India to sign a nuclear fuel reprocessing agreement.

The two countries "continue to negotiate reprocessing arrangements and procedures," the US State Department said in a statement Wednesday.

Citing talks between Obama and Singh, the department said "the United States is confident that the arrangements and procedures will be concluded well in advance of the August 2010 deadline."

Obama has reaffirmed to Singh his administration's commitment "to fully implement" the nuclear agreement, dispelling any notion that there might be less of a commitment from his administration in seeing the deal through.

Indian officials said they too did not see any major problem for their parliament to approve legislation effectively limiting the liability of suppliers in the event of a nuclear accident.

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