India, US expect final N-Bill today

Deal not hostage to US-Iran relations: India.

Both India and the US today said they expected a reconciled Indo-US civil nuclear co-operation Bill to be agreed upon and sent to President Bush by tomorrow.

Steering clear of any commitments on its relationship with Iran vis a vis the Indo-US civil nuclear co-operation Bill, India hoped that the Bill passed muster on Capitol Hill.

Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon made it clear that the deal would not be held hostage to the US' own relationship with any other country.

Addressing a joint press conference with US under secretary of state for political affairs Nicholas Burns, Menon said, "It (Indo-US civil nuclear co-operation Bill) is a stand-alone agreement recognising India's responsible position. How this is linked to Iran is a hypothetical question."

Both Burns and Menon said that they had not seen the final draft of the reconciled Bill and therefore any comment on a supposed clause about Iran in the Bill would be presumptuous.

"We greatly respect the fact that India and other countries have reacted with one voice on Iran's nuclear programme, that they can have peaceful use of nuclear energy but not a weapons programme," Burns said.

Burns also said the US intended to fulfill all the assurances given by it on nuclear fuel supply. "I anticipate a successful and supportive result of the reconciliation of the two Bills," said Burns. He said that he did not expect the Bill to have anything outside of the July 18, 2005 and March 2006 agreements. "It will be a historic and tremendous achievement for Indo-US relations," he said.

Earlier in the day, former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh said that the BJP found it odd that "Prime Minister of India to be lobbying for this agreement with the present US Senate Majority leader."

"Why has our prime minister engaged in such demeaning conduct," he said. He added that the PM should have "discussed the matter with the Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha with equal ease and informality."

Menon reacted to this statement and said that discussions were part of the process of coming to an agreement.