Bush pushes for Indo-US nuke deal

Washington, Nov 10 (UNI) President George W Bush has ''personally urged'' the Democrats, who won Tuesday's mid-term polls, to include the India-US civilian nuclear agreement on the agenda of the lame-duck session of the Congress, beginning here next week.

The request was made at a luncheon meeting that Mr Bush had with Democratic Party's leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate, and Steny Hoyer, House of Representatives.

President Bush said, ''The lame-duck Congress also has important foreign policy items on its agenda, such as enabling the United States to cooperate with India on civilian nuclear technology.'' Senator Reid later said, '' Democrats also believe that the civil nuclear agreement with India is important to conclude during the lame-duck session.'' ''India is the largest democracy in the world. We want to work with them, and it is important we move along that line, '' he told reporters.

Giving information about the talks, White House spokesman Tony Snow said, ''The readout I got from the meeting of President Bush and opposition leaders was primarily focused on the lame-duck session. We have got a Vietnam free trade agreement. An Indian civil clear agreement that's of great importance, obviously the budget matters, the outer continental shelf.'' ''The United States, I think we've been working closely with the Indian government, and I think the Indian government understands this is important for both countries, and we're working it through in the lame-duck session,'' he said.

The issue also figured at the State Department's daily press briefing, yesterday, where its spokesman Sean McCormack was asked whether the Indian Government had given a call to anybody in the United States about the effect the change-out in the Congress might have on the nuclear deal.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack replied,''I can't tell you. I don't know if they've called over here.'' He, however, said ''President Bush has put the agreement at the top of his things, he'd like to get done in the next session or the lame-duck session coming up here that I think is scheduled -- I don't know how long it's scheduled for.'' UNI XC SI BD1313