Date:27/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/27/stories/2008082759771200.htm

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U.S. looking at September deadline

Washington: As India and the U.S. started redrafting the text of the NSG waiver, Washington has said it was working in a focussed manner to push the process with an aim to concluding the civilian nuclear deal by early next month.

“Our principal focus right now has been on the India civil nuclear deal, having worked through the IAEA, now working through the NSG, and still trying to get into a position to make the appropriate presidential determinations in early September,” U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters on way to Tel Aviv.

She was responding to a question whether developments in Georgia would affect the U.S.-Russia civilian nuclear deal.

Clearance from the 45-nation is a key step in the implementation of the deal after which it has to be subjected to a final vote in the U.S. Congress, which would be meeting on September 8 for the last session during the Bush administration.

The NSG nod is essential to end India’s 34-year long isolation in the field. — PTI