India and Japan have agreed to restart talks on a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement aimed at allowing Japanese companies to export atomic power technology and equipment to India.

External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Japanese counterpart Takeaki Matsumoto agreed on this during their talks on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting of Foreign Ministers in Hungary, Kyodo news agency reported.

Krishna and Matsumoto agreed to continue talks between the two countries, which started in June last year, for a nuclear cooperation agreement aimed at allowing Japan to export nuclear power technology and equipment.

For Japan to formally enact a bilateral pact on a government-backed programme to transfer technology and equipment needed to build a nuclear power plant, an atomic cooperation accord needs to be cleared by Parliament.

Similar talks with Vietnam and Turkey have stalled since Japan's nuclear crisis following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the report said.

In the past, Japan has declined to conclude a nuclear deal with India as New Delhi has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Japan, which suffered atom bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II, maintains an official policy of not possessing or producing nuclear weapons, and not allowing them on its territory.