US, India try to rescue nuclear deal

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, the lead US negotiator, said he and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran agreed on the talks in a phone call on Tuesday.

"We agreed to meet to go over all aspects of the US-India agreement so we can move this along on both sides .. We agreed to meet next week in London," Burns said in remarks at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He did not specify a day.

The nuclear agreement has run into serious trouble in Washington and New Delhi, where critics on both sides complain their side got too little and the other side got too much.

In the United States, Congress must approve the deal, which was first agreed in principle by President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last July 18.

The leading Democratic supporter, Rep. Tom Lantos of California, last week said the accord lacked the support needed to pass and proposed a compromise intended to keep it alive but which could delay the process.

It was a cold dose of reality since the administration, Burns in particular, has been upbeat about quick passage of the agreement, which would radically alter 30 years of US policy designed to punish India because it developed nuclear weapons in contravention of international norms.

Burns said he would meet Lantos on Wednesday and declined to publicly critique the lawmaker's compromise. Another senior State Department official last week rejected Lantos' proposal and Burns said "we feel we have put our best foot forward,"

But Burns also seemed to leave the door open to discussion saying he would share with Lantos "our ideas about how this agreement should best be put forward for a vote."