Washington (PTI): India and the United States should utilise the upcoming maiden visit of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to effect a "breakthrough" in the civil nuclear deal, that has hit a stalemate in both the countries, to further cement their ties, South Asia scholars here say.

"The civilian nuclear deal should now be the most important thing they discuss so that they are able to assure themselves that progress can be made because the deal right now hangs in the balance," India specialist Harold Gould of the University of Virginia told PTI.

During his two-day visit from Sunday, first in his capacity as the External Affairs Minister, Mukherjee will hold talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other cabinet and administration officials including those of the National Security Council.

"Somebody has to break through with an initiative that moves this nuclear deal back on to a positive track. The nuclear deal has to get off the dime now," Gould said.

"In a way they have got to address the fact that there is a certain amount of stalemate on both sides on this. Obviously the Congress party in India is in a very, very critical stage because of the opposition of the communists. How are they going to work around this," Gould said.

He said there was also a "limbo" in the United States on the nuclear deal because the country was enmeshed in Presidential campaign.

"The result is that there isn't active addressing of this particular issue which really in the long run is very, very critical as it should be," Gould said.

"One hopes that this meeting between Mukherjee and Rice can enable both sides to develop some kind of a scenario of moving things along," he added.

Walter Andersen, former senior State department official, said the US would certainly bring up the nuclear deal during the talks.

Andersen, the Acting Director of the South Asia Programme of the School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University, said that the Bush administration would want to know from the Indian Minister as to where he thought the nuclear deal stands.

He said Iraq and China may also figure in the parleys in the wake of the ongoing pro-independence protests in Tibet and elsewhere.

Mukherjee has been making something about the Chinese problem on the border with India.

"And there is the perspective of military deals for which Mukherjee was the author in 2005 (as defence minister) for the larger framework in which to have arms sales and there are several pending arms sales," Andersen noted.

The civil nuclear deal was also on the minds of Indian American community leaders who have been rooting for its implementation.

"Given the timing of the visit,... there are grounds for positive discussion with the Bush Administration as far as developments on the civil nuclear agreement process, and this would present an excellent opportunity for charting a joint course of action for going forward," Sanjay Puri, the President and CEO of the United States India Political Action Committee said.

"One also hopes that real progress will be made on regional security cooperation issues such as coordinating appropriate responses to the recent elections in Pakistan and addressing the on-going situation in Afghanistan," he added.

Askok Mago, Chairman of the Dallas based US-India Forum, an organisation that played a pivotal role during the passage of the Hyde Act in 2006, said the visit was coming at a "critical stage" for the civil nuclear cooperation between two nations.

"It should provide the supporters of the initiative confidence that government of India is committed to see that this agreement is completed in the next few months," he said.

"We feel very strongly that Mukherjee's visit will result into the final stage to conclude a long journey which has seen a few bumps on the way," Mago told PTI.

He said the agreement will provide India the resources to continue its fast pace of growth and further strengthen the relations between our two nations.

Mukherjee's visit to Washington is coming at a time when there are every signs of the two countries deepening and widening their relations and in a host of areas-- economic, political and social.

Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen and his wife Kalpana were at the White House on Wednesday afternoon participating in a tea ceremony hosted by the First Lady Laura Bush celebrating parsi New Year 'Nowroz'.

The Indian envoy was among a handful of top diplomats invited that included people of Iranian origin and top diplomats from Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kirghisthan.

In a conversation with the First Lady, Sen is said to have pointed out the happy coincidence that on Friday in India the country is commemorating Good Friday, Miladi-u- Nabi and Holi.