July 25, 2008	Friday	Rajab 21, 1429

WASHINGTON, July 24: US President George W. Bush telephoned Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday to discuss joint efforts to forge ahead on their countries’ controversial nuclear deal, the White House said.

“Both leaders expressed their desire to see the US-India civil nuclear issue move forward as expeditiously as possible,” US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in a statement.

The allies have ramped up a diplomatic campaign to secure the international clearances needed for their civilian nuclear cooperation agreement, inked in 2005, which both sides say is key to broadening US-India relations.

Bush told Singh “he looks forward to continuing to work with his government to strengthen the United States-India strategic relationship,” Johndroe said, adding that they had also discussed stalled World Trade Organisation talks.

Bush and Singh “discussed the importance of all leading WTO members making contributions to a breakthrough that will put the Doha Round negotiations on a path to conclude an ambitious agreement before the end of the year,” he said.

The telephone conversation came ahead of Bush’s White House talks on Monday with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of Pakistan.

India said on Thursday it was sending out envoys to lobby for the final international clearances, a diplomatic offensive coming after the ruling coalition survived a hard-fought confidence vote in parliament sparked by left-wing and communist opposition to the pact.

Government officials said that senior cabinet ministers and foreign ministry officials had left New Delhi to solicit the support of members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Science Minister Kapil Sibal is travelling to IAEA headquarters in Vienna while foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon is in Germany to persuade Berlin, a member of the influential NSG that regulates nuclear commerce, to back the pact.

The NSG groups 45 countries that export nuclear fuel and technology whose rules ban trade with states, like India, that have not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Another senior government envoy, Shyam Saran, was in Ireland, another NSG member.

—AFP