New Delhi, March 2: Even when President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sat down for their one-to-one dialogue this morning the loose ends of the nuclear agreement had not been tied up.

Then Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, walked into the room at Hyderabad House where the leaders were meeting to give them the good news.

“The negotiations lasted from last July until about 10.30 this morning. Now, you can imagine how complex this was,” said under-secretary of state Nicholas Burns to American journalists travelling with the President.

Burns was the key negotiator from the US side while foreign secretary Shyam Saran led the Indian team. The two got down to business as soon as Air Force One landed around 8 pm in Delhi yesterday.

Around 9.15, accompanied by national security adviser Steve Hadley, Burns drove down to the Prime Minister’s Office in South block. “Steve Hadley and I and others met with the Indians until around midnight,” Burns disclosed.

It does not appear they even broke for dinner, which was ordered from a five-star hotel and eaten as the two sides continued to work. Around midnight, they packed up to gather again at 7 this morning ? this time at Hyderabad House ? just hours before Bush and Singh were scheduled to meet.

“The President, of course, had the vision that we would achieve this agreement. Secretary Rice was engaged in negotiations over the last eight months. A number of us were engaged in ? I think I made five trips here?. We met again this morning. And the Prime Minister and the President, of course, made the final agreement.”

Rice made the final intervention after the talks had spilled over from last night on to the breakfast table. There was an interruption that could not be avoided, the ceremonial reception for Bush at Rashtrapati Bhavan. When the officials took off to attend the ceremony, most of the hard bargaining was out of the way.

Burns disclosed what was going on behind closed doors. “What the Indians did? was to develop a plan, a very complex plan that would, in effect, separate its military nuclear facilities and its civilian nuclear facilities. And we helped the Indians to try to think through the separation? because it has to be presented to the US Congress and then it will have to be presented to the Nuclear Suppliers Group.”

After the Rashtrapati Bhavan ceremony, the officials rushed back to Hyderabad House for last-minute touches when Rice also stepped in. She was informed that much of the differences had been ironed out. By this time, Bush and Singh had started their meeting that was to last some 45 minutes.

“This morning, before the agreement was made, the President and Prime Minister had a thorough discussion of the issue. They weren’t negotiating the text ? that was left to others, of course ? but they are the strategic architects of this agreement,” Burns said.

The Indians were uncomfortable about the status of future reactors. The draft presented by the US was not clear.

Indian sources said there was a nagging doubt about the language used by the US officials, which had to be dispelled. India wanted to put beyond question the status of future reactors ? that it will only subject to international safeguards those that were for civilian purposes and that it would be free to pursue its weapons programme without outside monitoring, which is what it got.