UPDATE 1-Top India aide briefed U.N. body on atom draft

(Updates after briefing finished, adds diplomat comment)

By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA, July 18 (Reuters) - Senior U.S. and Indian officials met the International Atomic Energy Agency chief on Friday and briefed IAEA governors to resolve questions about India's plan for expanded nuclear inspections.

India negotiated the safeguards scheme with IAEA experts and the text is to be considered by the U.N. watchdog's 35-nation governing board in a special Aug. 1 session. Approval is a precondition for launching a U.S.-Indian nuclear trade accord.

If it passes, India and the United States must win clearance from a 45-nation group that regulates sensitive nuclear trade, then ratification by the U.S. Congress for the controversial 2005 nuclear agreement to take force. India agreed to subject its 14 declared civilian atomic reactors to inspections to help enable it to import "trigger list" nuclear items for peaceful use, even though it has shunned the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and tested atomic bombs.

Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon consulted with IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei on Friday hours before an afternoon briefing with agency governors as well as delegates from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Mostly technical questions came up at the briefing but no participants expressed opposition against the safeguards proposal, according to a diplomat who attended the meeting. Menon and diplomats coming out of the meeting had no comment.

"Technical questions were posed by a number of countries and Menon addressed them all," said the diplomat who requested anonymity. "He stressed that this was a standard safeguards agreement under the IAEA statute."

ElBaradei also received U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns for talks on India. Burns was making a brief stopover in Vienna en route to Geneva where he will join talks with Iran on its disputed atomic work in an unprecedented step by Washington.