Passage of nuclear bill a historic action: Bush

Hailing the House of Representatives' approval of the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal as a 'historic action' towards building a new strategic partnership between India and the US, President George W Bush urged the Senate on Thursday to act expeditiously to pass a similar legislation to implement this important initiative.

"President Bush commends the House of Representatives for Wednesday night's passage of the landmark legislation to enable US civil nuclear cooperation with India," White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said in a statement.

By an overwhelming vote of 359 to 68, the 435-member House passed the bill, enabling the US to provide India greater access of sensitive nuclear technology, after defeating potential dealbreaker amendments.

"This historic action by the House of Representatives is another important step toward building a new strategic partnership between the United States and India, the world's oldest and largest democracies," Snow said. "The President urges the Senate to act expeditiously to pass companion legislation to enable this important initiative to become a reality."

'The US-India civil nuclear cooperation initiative will help India generate more nuclear power to meet its enormous energy needs in a manner that does not increase greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution, or increase demand on global oil and gas supplies', the White House statement said.

'This initiative also advances US nonproliferation objectives by bringing India into the international nonproliferation mainstream', it added.

At the outset of his press briefing earlier, the White House Press Secretary took note of the passage of the bill and said Bush urged Senate to move on this 'as soon as possible'.

"We take note of the fact that the House has passed the US-India Nuclear Act with a 359-68 vote. It is going to exempt certain requirements of Atomic Energy Act of 1954. It has proposed nuclear agreement for civil nuclear cooperation with India and it's an important step to advancing the strategic partnership between the two countries," said Snow.

"The President now encourages the Senate to pass the legislation as soon as possible" he added.

Expressing similar sentiments, the State Department welcomed 'the strong support' for the historic US- India civil nuclear cooperation initiative shown by the 359 to 68 vote.

'We appreciate the hard work of many Members of Congress who crafted this legislation -- in particular Chairman (Henry) Hyde, Ranking Member (Tom) Lantos, and their staffs - and the House's willingness to consider the legislation promptly. We hope the Senate will choose to act favourably on this initiative as soon as possible', said a statement issued by Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey.

"We look forward to continuing to work with India to fulfill the promise of the July 18, 2005 and March 2, 2006 statements made by President (George W) Bush and Prime Minister (Manmohan) Singh," Casey said.