US hopes to push India N-deal intact through Congress

WASHINGTON: The India-US civil nuclear deal is one of the "top priorities" of the Bush administration which hopes to get it passed through Congress next month without material changes that could stall its implementation.

"We would hope and we would encourage the Congress not to change - make changes to the legislation that would materially affect our ability to implement the agreement," State department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Monday.

He could not say whether Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had made any phone calls to the "folks up on the (Capitol) Hill" to get New Delhi's concerns over the enabling legislation addressed at a conference of the House and Senate representatives to reconcile the versions passed by the two chambers.

But, "it is one of our top priorities hopefully to get it passed" in the lame-duck session of the legislature resuming Dec 4 after a two-week break, McCormack said noting that in the US system the Congress has a say in passing the India deal.

"So we're going to work closely with them both at the member level as well as at the staff level on addressing the various concerns that Capitol Hill has about this agreement... but we hope to be able to faithfully implement our agreement and our understanding surrounding that agreement," he said.

Asked if the administration was worried about some things in the legislation, McCormack said: "Nothing in particular that I would point out to you. But there are a number of specific amendments and particular concerns that various senators and congressmen and staff members have raised with us and we're trying to address each of those in such a way that we can implement this deal."

However, he did not "want to comment on any particular amendment that, you know, may or may not come up", including one seeking India's cooperation with US on Iran.

New Delhi has expressed concern about some provisions in the Senate bill and unpalatable references to Iran in the House version with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conveying his hope to President George Bush that the bill in its final form will accommodate India's stated concerns.

Section 106 of the Senate bill for one prohibits the export of any equipment, materials or technology related to the enrichment of uranium, the reprocessing of spent fuel, or the production of heavy water.

Another provision, Section 107, requires an end-use monitoring programme to be carried out with respect to US exports and re-exports of nuclear materials, equipment, and technology sold or leased to India.