India said Tuesday it could not commit to any US time line for finalization of a landmark nuclear deal caught in a deadlock among its ruling coalition partners. Foreign Minister Pranap Mukherjee said New Delhi needed “more time” to forge an agreement on the deal despite a tight 2008 US legislative calendar ahead of the November presidential polls. US President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed more than two years ago on the deal, in which Washington would provide India with nuclear fuel and technology. But the agreement had failed to win the support of the Indian ruling Congress-led coalition's Communist allies, who feared the sovereignty of the nuclear armed nation would be compromised and New Delhi might ally more closely with the United States. “At this juncture, it is difficult for me to indicate any time frame by which we will be able to complete this process,” Mukherjee told a news conference in Washington after talks with President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “We are trying to resolve the issues but it may take some more time.” The Bush administration and the US Congress have warned India about the limited time available for the civil nuclear deal to be approved by the legislature before Bush leaves the White House in January 2009. “Well, we have a little bit of time before we have to say ‘now or never,' White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said to a question Tuesday. “We've got several months to continue to work with them.” Could the deal clear Congress by mid-year? “I think as that you get further and further into the Congressional calendar, I think it's fair to say it's more and more difficult just because of the political realities of the press of business,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. “The main issue now is the Indian government working its domestic politics,” he said. Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, had said the agreement had to come before the Senate for approval no later than July. Asked about the time constraints, Mukherjee emphasized that unless the outstanding issues among India's coalition partners were resolved, “it would be difficult for us to (meet) any particular time frame.” __
