Nuclear deal not concluded, Bush promises its early approval

Washington, Sep 26 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George Bush met at the Oval Office for 45 minutes but did not sign the final agreement on the nuclear deal in the absence of a Congressional nod.

However, President Bush promised Dr Singh an early passage of the nuclear agreement through the US Congress in a manner that would ''satisfy'' India.

''...of course, we want the agreement to satisfy you and get it out of of our Congress. And so, we're working hard to get it passed as quickly as possible [by the Congress],'' the President said while welcoming the Prime Minister to the White House for the meeting at 1710 hours local time on Thursday (0230 hrs IST on Friday).

''I sincerely hope that the settlement which is now before the US Congress, will be approved in a manner which will be satisfactory from the point of view of both the countries...And when the history is written, I think it will be recorded that President George W Bush made a historic goal in bringing the two democracies closer to each other,'' the Prime Minister remarked.

After the initial euphoria over the Senate foreign Relations Committee's nod to the deal by a 19-2 vote, the panel has sought to curtail India's rights to nuclear testing and has recommended that supply of nuclear material, equipment and technology to India be immediately stopped if India conducted a nuclear test, sources said.

It has also recommended that the US should persuade NSG members also to stop all supplies in such a situation and added that the deal would be subject to the Hyde Act, the sourcs said.

The Prime Minister, who flew to Washington fron New York for the meeting, XXX Picking up from sixth para of Third Lead PM Bush meeting UNI RB SLD DS1450