Rice says time "very short" for approval of N-deal in Congress

Washington, Sep 7 (PTI) The time is "very short" for the
approval of the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal in the Congressional
session beginning Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice said while hailing the grant of the N.S.G. waiver to
India.

The first thing "is that we still have a little more to do
on the determinations for the Hyde Act, and we will try to
complete that...," Rice said in a Roundtable with the
Travelling Press in Algiers, the capital of Algeria.

"I have already talked before this N.S.G., several weeks
before, to relevant committee chairs about trying to get it
done, and I will have those conversations again, most likely
on Monday or Tuesday, as well as trying to see whether the
leadership believes that this can go forward."

Rice, however said, "...we understand that the time is
very short. We knew that in the summer, when the Indians were
able finally to move this forward in their domestic process.
But I think we have demonstrated the commitment of the
administration to this agreement, because we have worked this
with the very, very strong help of partners through the
I.A.E.A. and through the N.S.G. in very rapid order."

"I don't think most people thought that we were going to
be able to get this through the N.S.G. this weekend," she
said, according to a transcript released here.

Rice said she wanted to thank, especially, the German
chair for the way they had worked on the matter and also took
note of the "good cooperation" with Britain, France and Russia
which were "very helpful".

"And I want to thank also the heads of delegations even
who had difficulty: for instances, Norway. I talked several
times with Foreign Minister (Jonas Gahr) Store, who had very
strong views about the principles of the non-proliferation
regime, but helped us find a way forward," she said.

"... it has been a good week for those negotiations. But
we will just have to see whether it is still possible in
Congress. In any case, we will have left a very good package,
and I hope that it will be taken up (in the next Congress),"
she said.