WASHINGTON, Oct 29: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned her Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee on Monday to enhance US efforts to save a landmark nuclear deal with India from a possible collapse.

“She wanted to underline and reinforce for the Indian government that we continue to support moving forward with the agreement,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a briefing in Washington.

The telephone call followed a meeting between US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Foreign Minister Mukherjee in Kolkata on Sunday. After the meeting Mr Paulson urged India not to waste more time in political wrangling over the deal. “I think it is important to start implementing this agreement as soon as possible,” he said.

Mr Paulson also met West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya whose Communist Party is opposed to the deal and has threatened to overthrow the fragile coalition led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Mr Paulson called the deal an “important agreement,” which “makes sense for both of our countries.”

Spokesman McCormack here also stressed this point but disagreed with the suggestion that the United States was willing to renegotiate the deal to save it from a possible collapse.

The controversial agreement, initiated more than two years ago during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Washington, has already been endorsed by the US Congress and signed by President George W. Bush. But in India, some politicians and nuclear experts have rejected the controversial deal as approved by the Congress, arguing that it places unnecessary restrictions on India’s own nuclear programme.

They are particularly upset with a clause that would terminate Indo-US nuclear cooperation if India conducts yet another nuclear test and have urged New Delhi to renegotiate this and some other clauses.

Asked if the United States was willing to renegotiate the deal, Mr McCormack said: “I don’t believe that there’s any consideration of that, or any discussion of that, on either side at this point.”

The spokesman said the United States was aware of “the intense debate” within India over the deal but could not do much to help end the dispute. “The Indian people and the Indian political system are going to have to work out whatever resolution of that debate there will be,” he said. “But we continue to urge the Indian government to move forward with this deal, and we are prepared to move forward with it as well.”

Asked if there’s anything the United States could do to move this process ahead, Mr McCormack said: “It’s really a matter for the Indian political system to resolve their questions about it. And whatever that resolution is, it’s going to be up to them; however they -- whichever way they decide to go.”