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player ready...A senior State Department official on Wednesday gave India a three-month deadline to complete negotiations on a landmark nuclear energy deal so Congress can vote on the issue before its summer recess.
Speaking to reporters here, the official, Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, said the Bush administration would have to finalize the agreement by the “end of May” to present it to Congress by June. “We are kind of playing in overtime,” he said. “There’s a lot of work, not a lot of time.”
The Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, demurred on a deadline for the politically contentious deal, but in an unusual swipe at his political opponents, made it plain that his fragile coalition government was mustering courage to push through the agreement and readying itself for early elections.
Opposition within India has for months delayed completion of the deal, initiated by the Bush administration to allow energy-starved India to buy nuclear fuel and technology on the world market to generate power. Opposition has come primarily from Singh’s Communist Party allies, who objected because it would bolster India’s ties to the United States. Singh’s coalition would fall without the Communists’ support.
Only a few months ago, many had all but given up the deal for dead.
But the tide has clearly begun to shift in recent weeks, suggesting that Singh’s government is preparing for elections before its term ends in May 2009.