Rice, Pranab trying to rekindle nuke deal

Condoleezza Rice & Pranab Mukherjee spoke about the Indo0US deal and the situation in cyclone hit Myanmar.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Pranab Mukherjee, her Indian counterpart, discussed the current situation in Myanmar and the civil nuclear deal.

“On Burma, she yesterday spoke with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang. I mentioned Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. And she also spoke with Indian Foreign Minister Mukherjee. Of course, part of their discussion also was about the Indian civil nuclear deal, but they focused quite a bit on the issue of Burma,” spokesman at Foggy Bottom Sean McCormack said.

However, the spokesman was reluctant to give details of the conversation on the civilian nuclear initiative.

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McCormack’s refusal to provide details on the Rice- Mukherjee conversation pertaining to the civilian nuclear deal has is being seen against the backdrop of a perception in Washington that the Bush administration does not want the finer details of the deal to be discussed publicly in an apprehension that this could make a volatile issue even more complicated.

The Bush administration is quite aware of the political compulsions in India and according to a media report is disinclined to have members of Congress discussing the responses to queries out in the open.

“The US-India civilian nuclear deal is in ‘such desperate’ straits that the State Department has imposed unusually strict conditions on the answers it has provided to law makers, that it be kept secret even if the materials are not classified,” a report in The Washington Post said.

Officials at Foggy Bottom, according to the media report have made the request to Congress because of a fear that public disclosure would torpedo the deal, unnamed sources have been cited in report said.