New Delhi: The US Congress is likely to pass the landmark nuclear energy deal with India, but the vote might be delayed until January, after the American mid-term elections, a leading Senator said on Monday.
Chuck Hagel, chairman of the US Senate's Foreign Relations Sub-Committee, told a press conference that he expected the deal would ultimately be approved without amendments.
"It's conceivable that this would have to be put off until the beginning of the next Congress, which would be January next year," he said, adding that he hoped for a vote before the end of the year.
"I'm confident that Congress will vote for it."
The nuclear civil cooperation deal, agreed on a visit to India by President George W Bush last month, would allow New Delhi to buy foreign nuclear technology for the first time in 30 years, despite its refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Indian lobbyists say that some Democrats, who have raised objections to the deal, could be playing for time.
White House Spokesman Scott McClellan said on Monday that the there was good bipartisan support for the process of ratifying the Indo-US nuclear agreement.
Calling the agreement 'an important' one, he said the Bush administration looked forward to continuing to work with Congress, to answer their questions, hearing any issues that they might want to bring up and talking to them about the importance of this agreement.
"The agreement goes to build our strategic relationship to ensure energy security for India as well as the United States. It would also, for the first time, bring India's civilian nuclear
programme under international safeguards, which is an important development," he said.
He mentioned that US President George W Bush has earlier noted that India was not a country that was engaged in proliferation. They had a good non-proliferation record. And we had to look at the reality of the situation.
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