Sonia welcomes passage of the nuke bill

While generally welcoming the approval of the Indo-US nuclear deal by the American Senate, Congress president Sonia Gandhi made it clear on Friday that India would not accept anything that would go beyond the agreement reached between President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on July 18 last year.

"We welcome it (the passage of a bill approving the deal). I believe that the government will study it and formulate a position. The bill will have to be reconciled by the Senate and the House of Representatives," Sonia said at the HT Leadership Summit.

As regards the position of the Congress party and the United Progressive Alliance, she said, "Nothing will be accepted that is outside the July 18 (last year) agreement. We sincerely hope that both Houses (Senate and House of Representatives) will sit down and reconcile. All those areas that are not acceptable to us will be excluded and only then we will welcome the bill happily."