But the IAEA said it was not yet in position to reveal what the two men would discuss or how long the talks would last.

"Dr ElBaradei and Dr Kakodkar will meet tomorrow (Wednesday)," IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said.

Earlier, Kakodkar's office in Mumbai had announced that India's top nuclear official was due in Vienna on Wednesday to begin talks with ElBaradei as part of efforts to clinch a landmark deal with the United States.

But with the IAEA's 35-member board scheduled to begin a two-day meeting on Thursday, where the agency was scheduled to discuss ElBaradei's latest report on Iran, a deal between the IAEA and India was unlikely to be signed and sealed as early as this week, diplomatic sources said.

"You can't get a safeguards agreement in just one day. This is more likely an opportunity for them to touch base and to indicate in which direction they expect the talks to go," one source said on condition of anonymity.

The IAEA and India must hammer out an India-specific safeguards agreement for New Delhi's deal with Washington to go ahead.

Under the deal, India, which is not party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, will separate its civilian and military programmes and place 14 of its 22 nuclear plants under international safeguards in return for civilian nuclear technology.

In return, Washington has promised to amend the US Atomic Energy Act of 1954 which prevents United States from trading nuclear technology with nations that have not signed up to the NPT.

The deal will enable India to retain its military programme, while still benefiting from international civilian nuclear commerce.

However, the deal has come under heavy fire, particularly at home where the Indian's government's communist allies had threatened to bring down the government.

On Friday, the leftist parties gave the green light to the government to initiate talks with the IAEA, thereby moving a step closer to implementing the deal.

On Monday, the Indian government on Monday said it would continue to consult left-wing opponents on the deal.

"The issue is to go out and do an India-specific safeguards agreement and that is what we are going to do and we will do it," Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told reporters.

In addition to talks with the IAEA, India must also negotiate an agreement with the Nuclear Suppliers Group, which controls global atomic trade.

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