NEW DELHI- India's government is in talks with Pfizer and other vaccine manufacturers for import of their COVID-19 vaccines in accordance with local laws, a senior government official said on Monday.

"We have to find the middle ground," government advisor Vinod Kumar Paul told the news channel CNBC TV-18, when asked about the progess of talks with Pfizer and Moderna.

Any final decision on vaccine imports has to be compatible with Indian laws and the government was hopeful that these vaccines would be available in the country before the end of this year, Paul said.

(Reporting by Neha Arora in New Delhi and Shilpa, Jamkhandikar in Pune, editing by Louise Heavens)