Noting that the India-United States civilian nuclear deal is 'more of a problem of politics', Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar on Friday hoped that differences on the issue would be sorted out sooner than later, enabling India to step up nuclear power generation.
"It is more a problem of politics. I won't be in a position to answer that question," he said in reply to a query on when he expects to clinch the deal.
Asked if more needs to be achieved on the safeguards with the global nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency - Kakodkar told NDTV, "Nothing is final till everything is final and everything is obviously not final".
The top nuclear scientist said he "only hoped that things (related to the nuclear deal) work out sooner than later".
Kakodkar said he would be able to accelerate the domestic programme to produce nuclear power if he got 'inputs from outside'.
"In any case, the domestic efforts are on and we hope to meet the domestic programme needs on the basis of domestic strengths. If external inputs are available so much the better," he said.
Asked whether the stalemate on the deal was affecting the domestic programme, Kakodkar said, "The fact is the domestic programme was 10,000 MW. The question is at what rate I will be able to produce it and how fast. If we get inputs from outside, we can do that much faster".