India and Russia have found a way to push ahead with the agreement without formally sealing it. The Indo-Russian nuclear cooperation agreement initialled by Nuclear Power Corporation head S.K. Jain and State Secretary Nikolai Spassky of Russia's Atomic Energy Agency in New Delhi on Monday opens the way for negotiating a commercial contract for the supply of four additional Russian reactors at Koodankulam. "The way is now open for work on the contract,' an official spokesman for the Russian atomic energy agency, Rosatom, said. India's decision not to sign the agreement during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Russia visit in November 2007 raised a few eyebrows in Moscow. The delay in signing the agreement pushed back the preparation of the contract for the supply of the reactors. "Construction work for the additional reactors can only start after a contract has been signed. But before the contract is drafted Russia and India must first sign or initial an intergovernmental agreement,' Rosatom spokesman Sergei Novikov told The?Hindu. "In [the] case of Bulgaria [which last month signed a deal for two Russian reactors] it took the sides a full year to negotiate the contract.' Had India signed a full-fledged agreement with Russia instead of a memorandum of intent during President Vladimir Putin's visit to India a year ago, the commercial contract for the four reactors would have probably be ready by now. When the long-awaited accord failed to materialise during the November summit, Indian officials said no nuclear energy accords could be signed till India reaches agreements with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for the lifting of restrictions on civil nuclear technology trade. Russian sources for their part blamed U.S. pressure for New Delhi's decision to back off from the deal. By initialling the agreement now the sides have found a way to push ahead with the deal without formally sealing it. "Initialling means that the text of the agreement cannot be changed, and the sides can therefore go ahead with the drafting of the contract,' Mr. Novikov said. The commercial contract can be signed even before India has completed talks with the IAEA and the NSG, according to Sergey Shmatko, president of Atomstroyexport, Russia's nuclear technology exporting company. The contract must include a rider linking its implementation to the approval of IAEA safeguards. However, Atomstroyexport can "start the preparatory work for building the next two units' even before that, Mr. Shmatko told The?Hindu last year. "If the contract is ready by the time India gets green light from the IAEA and the NSG, construction of the reactors may be started without delay,' Mr. Novikov said. The Russians are confident of their position in the Indian atomic energy market and do not fear international competition. First, Russia is the only reactor-exporting country to have a foothold in India. It is completing the construction of two 1,000-Mwe reactors at Koodankulam. The first reactor is expected to go operational next year. "First come, first served,' said Dr. Leonid Bolshov, head of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute for Safe Atomic Energy. "To be sure, U.S. Westinghouse and France's Areva will eventually come to India because it is a vast market. Meanwhile, Russia is expanding its presence on the Indian nuclear energy market, thereby is also improving its competitive edge on other markets.' Important advantage Russia has by far the richest experience in the world in building commercial reactors. It is currently setting up 12 nuclear reactors