NEW DELHI: India will be under "no compulsion" to separate its civil and nuclear facilities if it finds the process too complicated and expensive, official sources said here on Friday. "We don't have to go ahead with this," the sources said about India's commitments under the July 18 civilian nuclear deal with the United States.

But in case India took the view that separation was not viable, the other "benefits" that were to flow to New Delhi as per the accord would not be available.

It is for the first time since the nuclear deal was clinched that an official indication from the Manmohan Singh Government has suggested that India reserves the right not to go ahead with the agreement if the hurdles to identifying the civilian nuclear facilities are too great.

In response to questions, the sources, however, said India would have no problem if Washington wanted to share the separation plan with the Nuclear Suppliers Group or the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) before the U.S. Congress made the necessary legislative changes to lift nuclear restrictions on New Delhi.

The U.S. had understood that the process of identifying India's civilian nuclear facilities was complicated and expensive and would have to be done in a phased manner. According to the sources, the U.S. also understood that a change in its legislation would not come at the end of the process of implementing the July 18 agreement.

The sources stressed that India would be prepared to share a "road map" with the U.S. on the separation of facilities, but this had to be an exercise carried out only by the Government of India. On the absence of a resolution referring Iran to the United Nations Security Council at the IAEA governing board in Vienna, the sources admitted that India was "happy and relieved" that there was no vote.

Pointing out that the U.S. and the European Union had the votes to refer Iran to the Security Council, the sources maintained that had such a development taken place Iran might have walked out of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and expelled IAEA inspectors.

Suggesting that the European Union "three" (France, Germany and Britain) were likely to resume negotiations with Iran in early December, the sources said Iran's right to nuclear enrichment had been recognised, but some of it could be off-shored to another country. Russia, they said, was engaged in facilitating the talks between Iran and the E.U. "three".

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