(Repeating, inserting matter in para two)

St Petersburg, July 17 (UNI) Allaying India's apprehensions, US President George W Bush today assured Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the proposed American law to ratify the Indo-US nuclear deal would be within the parameters of the July 18, 2005 agreement between the two countries and the separation plan for New Delhi's nuclear facilities presented in Parliament.

"There is no intention on the part of the US to go beyond the scope of the deal and the separation plan as the US understood India's concerns. There will be no shifting of goal-posts'' Mr Bush told Dr Singh at their bilateral meeting held here on the sidelines of the G8 summit.

Briefing reporters on the 40-minute meeting and the other day-long engagements of the Prime Minister, including the first-ever summit-level trilateral talks between India, Russia and China, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said the biggest gain at these talks was the issue of a strongly worded statement by the G8 and its outreach partners condemning the Mumbai and Srinagar blasts on July 11.

The statement had also recognised the need for bringing to book the ''sponsors'' of terrorism which was a ''very, very important gain,'' Mr Saran said without referring to Pakistan.

Earlier, Dr Singh had made it clear that the scale of the July 11 attacks could not have been possible without outside involvement.

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