WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate's top Democrat will press for passage this year of a U.S.-Indian civil nuclear cooperation accord, his spokesman said Thursday, boosting prospects for the landmark agreement to be ratified before President Bush leaves office. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who met Wednesday with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, "will try to find a way to move it forward" this year, spokesman Jim Manley said. The accord, one of Bush's top foreign policy initiatives, would reverse three decades of U.S. policy by shipping atomic fuel to India in return for international inspections of India's civilian reactors.The support of lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled Senate and House is crucial because only about three weeks remain before Congress is scheduled to recess for the year to campaign for Nov. 4 elections. The Bush administration needs lawmakers' help to overcome a law that says Congress may not ratify the accord for 30 working days after receiving it. Without passage of legislation to scrap the waiting period, Congress does not appear to have enough days left to ratify the deal.
The House's top lawmaker, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, mentioned the requirement of a "waiver" to strike the 30-day waiting period and said Thursday: "I hope that that work can be done so we can take it up." Pelosi, a supporter of the agreement, noted, however, "We don't want it to be a precedent for saying many more countries will join" the nuclear club.
Sen. Joe Biden, the Democrats' vice presidential candidate and a supporter of nuclear cooperation with India, said the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which he chairs, could review the agreement in a hearing as soon as next week.
Also Thursday, the White House announced that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet with Bush later this month in Washington as the two leaders push for approval of the accord.