July 11, 2008	Friday	Rajab 7, 1429

WASHINGTON, July 10: The Bush administration is trying to persuade key lawmakers to hold a special session of the US Congress to finalise the Indo-US nuclear deal before it adjourns.

“We have been in close contact with the Congress and key members of Congress on this issue,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack when asked how the administration plans to get approval for the deal from the current Congress.

Less than 40 days are left in the session before Congress adjourns on Sept 26. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that there will be no lame-duck session after the Nov 4 elections.

This is bad news for the Bush administration which completes its second and final tenure in December. If the nuclear deal is referred to the next Congress, the administration may not get credit for a historic pact it initiated.

The delay could also be bad for India as the new Congress may want a fresh debate on an issue which has already cleared initial hurdles in the current legislature.

Asked if the administration believes Congress will hold a lame-duck session to approve the deal, Mr McCormack said: “That is not under our control. That is certainly under the control of the leadership in Congress.”

The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the Bush administration’s signature deal may not win final approval in the current Congress, “raising the possibility that India could begin nuclear trade with other countries even without the approval.”

Taking note of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s success in negotiating an agreement with the Samajwadi Party to ward off the threat to his coalition government from the leftist withdrawal of support, the daily pointed to several remaining hurdles in its way.

For one, the Hyde Act passed in 2006 that gave preliminary approval to the US-India agreement, requires that the Congress be in 30 days of continuous session to consider it.

The Post cited congressional aides as saying that clock can begin to tick only once India clears two more hurdles — completing an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, and securing approval from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group, which governs nuclear trade.With the near impossibility of congressional passage by year-end, US officials and experts have begun to focus on the possibility that other countries — such as France and Russia — would rush in to make nuclear sales to India while US companies still face legal restrictions, the Post said.

“India doesn’t need the US deal at all” once the NSG grants approval, it cited Sharon Squassoni, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as saying. “It was a fatal flaw in the logic of the US Congress.”The Post said a State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was discussing congressional strategy, agreed. “I don’t believe there is anything to prevent them from doing that, if we don’t ratify it,” he said, noting the irony of the US not profiting from a deal it set in motion.

But, the Post said he suggested the administration would use that awkward situation to pressure the Congress not to thwart potential business opportunities for American companies.

“It is the hidden force of this agreement,” the official said. “It is US business that sees an opportunity.”