US Congress joint session decide Indo-US nuke deal next week

New York, Nov 28 (UNI) The United States has said the final version of the civilian nuclear deal signed with India will be acceptable to both the countries, as a joint session of both chambers of the US Congress is scheduled to meet next week.

Mr Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs considered the pointman for the deal on the US side, expressed the optimism during a lecture at the Asia Society here last night.

The deal, first agreed upon by both President George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year, has strong bipartisan support. The House of Representatives had passed it with overwhelming majority while the Senate also approved it with 85-12 earlier this month, Mr Burns said.

He strongly defended the deal saying it would end the ''pariah status'' of India in the nuclear field and bring 14 of its 22 nuclear power plants under international inspections.

Mr Burns, who will have meetings with Foreign Ministry and Atomic Energy Department officials in New Delhi next week over the issue, visualised burgeoning trade between Washington and New Delhi.

''There's going to be 30 billion dollar bilateral trade next year,'' Mr Burns, who visited India five times over the past 18 months, observed.

The lecture, though was titled ''US Policy toward South Asia,'' was dominated by issues related to India.

Aside from government-to-government ties, it is equally important to have relations between the peoples, private businesses and non- governmental organisations, he said.

Mr Burns, 50, rejected a suggestion that the United States mediate over the Kashmir issue, which he said should be resolved through a bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan. He said Washington would only facilitate such a dialogue, which is ongoing.

''It's important that it (the Kashmir issue) must be resolved,'' he noted.

Mr Burns is the third-highest official in the State Department.

After appointed by President Bush, the career diplomat was confirmed by the Senate on March 17, 2005, and was sworn into office by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Before being appointed to the current post, he was the US representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

Mr Burns, before entering the Foreign Service, had worked as a program officer at A T International, a nonprofit organisation specialising in economic assistance to the Third World nations.

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