In the wake of concerns expressed by some Congress members over the agreement on the civilian nuclear deal with India, the United States has said that the Bush administration will not sign off on anything that is not in American interests.
"We're not going to agree to anything that is not in the US national interest. And in terms of 'needing agreements', we're certainly not going to do anything that we believe is harmful to either our national security or foreign policy interests," the State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
McCormack, in his regular briefing, was asked to comment on the status of the language pertaining to India conducting a nuclear test.
"As for the agreement with the Indians on the so-called 123 agreement, we had a statement out last Friday. There are some continuing discussions regarding that agreement. I would expect within the next couple of days we'll have more to say about it," he said.
"But at the end of the day, what we produce and what we may agree to is going to be something that is in the interest of this country from a variety of different perspectives, from helping to prevent the further spread of nuclear technologies and nuclear materials, and also in realising a different kind of relationship with India that President Bush has really made an important priority for the administration going all the way back to the first term," he said.
"In the fullness of time we will have more to say about the details of what we've been talking to the Indians about. At this point, I am not at liberty to get into any more of the details," McCormack said.
A senior State Department official privy to the goings on told PTI that senior members of Congress in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate are being briefed on the substance of what negotiators from New Delhi and Washington had agreed upon with a formal and full scale briefing on the subject due to take place soon.