Bush confident Congress will ok nuclear deal

United States President George W Bush is confident that the US Congress will pass the legislation on the India-US nuclear agreement.

At his 45-minute meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday morning, Bush acknowledged that India had several concerns with the wordings of the bills pending passage in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The President conveyed that the US will ensure the commitment expected from India and will not go beyond the understandings reached in the July 18, 2005 statement after the Bush-Singh summit in Washington, DC and the separation (of civilian and nuclear facilities) plan the Indian government presented to the Indian Parliament.

"There will be no shifting of the goal posts," Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran told the media delegation accompanying Dr Singh to the G8 summit.

President Bush, Saran added, told the prime minister that he expects the legislation to be finalised in the next few weeks.

Saran pointed out that the two leaders did not get into negotiating mode about specific items but the prime minister pointed out to President Bush certain elements in the House and Senate Bills which appear to go beyond what had been agreed upon in the July 18, 2005

agreement and the separation plan presented to Parliament.

Giving specific examples, the foreign secretary pointed out the scope of cooperation if there was a limitation and restriction on reprocessing and enrichment technology. "Would that not violate India's understanding that there would be full civil nuclear cooperation?" he asked.

Another concern was the reference to safeguard the agreement between India and the International Atomic Energy Agency, which do not seem to recognise that these safeguard agreements would be India specific in character because "India was not a non Nuclear Weapon State."

The bills also had references to end use verification procedures which seemed to be going beyond the need for these safeguards.

"If we are going to have India specific safeguards, we don't need another layer of verification procedures," Saran said.

The foreign secretary said the US leadership was well aware of India's concerns and the need to ensure that the deal remains within the July 18, 2005 statement and the separation plan.