The Indo-US civil nuclear deal will come up during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with President George W Bush in Germany on Friday on the margins of the G-8 Summit with both sides looking for a political push to break the impasse over the right to reprocess spent fuel.
"I am sure it will be mentioned during the conversation. It is a very important part of the relationship," Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told reporters on being asked whether the two leaders will discuss the civil nuclear cooperation agreement.
Clearly not wanting to raise expectations of a breakthrough at the Singh-Bush meeting, Menon said, "This is not a bilateral negotiating forum. There are other fora where we do that."
He added that these are 'pull-aside' meetings where leaders spend a few minutes with each other.
After three days of talks between Menon and U S Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns
last week, both sides had made it clear that further negotiations were required to iron out differences.
During his four-day visit, Dr Singh will meet Chinese President Hu Jintao and review bilateral relations, particularly assessing progress on implementation of agenda set out last November.
The prime minister will attend the meeting of G-8 leaders with leaders from India and the four other outreach
countries--China, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico.
The issue of climate change is also expected to figure prominently in the meeting between Dr Singh and Bush, in the
backdrop of the latter's remarks that India, along with China, produces most greenhouse gas emissions.
New Delhi has serious objections to being solely blamed for affecting the environment and Dr Singh is expected to convey to Bush that greenhouse gas emissions in India were linked to its energy security, a senior official said.