US hopes Congress won't radically alter N-deal

The Bush administration hopes that the US Congress will pass a legislation on the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal in a manner that would not make radical changes in the historic agreement so that they could "faithfully" implement it.

Emphasising that the deal remained its "top priority" during the lame-duck session, US State Department Spokesperson Sean McCormack said, "We would hope and encourage the Congress not to make changes to the legislation that would materially affect our ability to implement the agreement."

"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. They have a say in this, but we hope to be able to faithfully implement our agreement and our understanding surrounding that agreement," he said.

McCormack, when asked whether there were any specific things in the bill that worried them, said a number of lawmakers have raised amendments and concerns regarding the deal and they were trying to address these questions.

"There is 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. We are trying to address each of those in such a way that we can implement this deal," he said.

With regard to a question whether there would be penalties if India did not cooperate with the US on Iran, he said he did not want to comment on any particular amendment that "may or may not come up". 

McCormack said he could not say whether Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had made any calls to Capitol Hill or to officials of the Indian government regarding the legislation that was cleared by the Senate by a thumping bipartisan majority of 85 to 12 votes.

"I can't tell you if she (Rice) had any recent phone calls with folks up on the Hill concerning the civil nuclear agreement.

"It is one of our top priorities, hopefully in this lame-duck session that is coming up, to get it passed. As for amendments, Congress has a say in passing this agreement. That's the way our system works," McCormack said.