India, Dassault agree to set aside divergences, move ahead in

India and French firm DassaultAviation today decided to keep aside their sharp differencesover contractual obligations and move ahead on the otheraspects of the deal to procure 126 multirole combat aircraftfor the IAF.

During the contract negotiation committee meeting today,the two sides agreed to keep their discussions pending on theissue of having separate contracts and the role of HAL in thedeal and move ahead on other things such as pricing andsupport services, sources told PTI here today.

Serious differences have cropped up in the contractnegotiations between the Defence Ministry and the French firm,threatening to delay the country's single largest dosemilitary acquisition.

The French firm has already agreed with the DefenceMinistry's demand for having one contract with the four majorfirms involved in the deal, including MBDA, for the weaponspackage for the aircraft instead of four separate contracts,they said.

The firm is understood to have agreed to the DefenceMinistry's demand on the issue after the involvement of Frenchgovernment.