Tuesday, March 28 2006 12:44 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: On the eve of crucial meetings on Capitol Hill on the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Bush administration has said it is open to ideas and suggestions from members of Congress on the agreement provided they are not deal-breakers requiring re-negotiations.

It also expressed willingness to show flexibility on the '123 agreement,' which is an outline of a final bilateral civil nuclear deal. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns will take up the 123 agreement with the visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran this week.

Burns, who will tomorrow hold a closed door session with lawmakers discussing the landmark deal, told reporters after his address at the Council on Foreign Relations that "there is a difference between ideas and suggestions that are meant to strengthen the agreement and ideas and suggestions that make us go back and negotiate it (the treaty) we are open to the former and not to the latter".

Burns also said that the Bush administration will be clearing these ideas and suggestions with the Government of India.

"Sure, Yes, of course we would go to the government of India and say look here are some ideas. They are not deal breakers, they are not conditions. I assume what we'll do if these ideas come along is brief the Indian Government", he said.

"This happens all the time in the American system. The administration proposes an initiative, Congress has its own ideas and the administration then decides whether we want to agree to that or can agree to that. We will have to take these one at a time", he said.

During the formal meeting Burns argued that the administration is open to any ideas "As long as it does not require us to go back and break the agreement" stressing that the accord being so complex cannot be reassembled again."

"We'll never be able to put it back together again"Burns said making the point that while members of Congress could have ideas these cannot be deal breakers requiring re-negotiations.

"We are going to see a fairly dynamic debate on the Hill and we hope at some point in the next month or two, more likely in May or June, we are going to see a vote. We are going to wait until Congress acts to formally ask the Nuclear Suppliers Group to make commensurate amendments", Burns said.

"The reason why the India issue is not on the agenda of the Board (meaning the NSG) Meeting of late May is because we are not sure when Congress is going to act. But you can call on the NSG at any time so that is not a barrier to us", the senior official said.

Burns also indicated that the administration is willing to show flexibility on the so-called 123 Agreement, that can now come after Congress has approved the civilian nuclear energy legislation currently pending before Congress.

Burns that he will be discussing this technical 123 agreement with Saran this week but did not believe there would be a signing ceremony.

"We are flexible that the 123 agreement will come after Congressional approval. But I think there's a lot of interest in Congress of what's going to be in it. So we are please to share our draft with Congress, " he said.

"It is a basic construct. It reflects the agreement we've already made. So there is no new ground being made and so it is a technical agreement that reflects the decisions already made by both countries. I have already briefed most members of what's in the Agreement", he said.

In his presentation, Burns again put forward the administration's defence of the dealt that it is in conformity with the changing realities of international politics and nation state behaviour; in the interests of existing non proliferation regimes, did not devalue the NPT and one that did not bring about any double standards.

Burns said if Iran and North Korea are the standards to judge, then the US is indeed bringing about or introducing a double standard.

"We are happy to treat a friendly country differently than Iran or North Korea" Burns said stressing in the process that "No one is comparing India and Iran", he said.

In response to a question, Burns argued that NPT is important and the US wants to support it, but the treaty "As it has developed over time has serious weaknesses and serious contradictions.This was a regime with a lot of internal contradictions".

Burns said that the Bush administration came to the conclusion that the positives outweighed the negatives when it came to the issue of the civilian nuclear deal with India and continuing to keep India out did not serve the interest of non proliferation regimes.

"The deal that we negotiated(with Indiadoes not speak about nuclear weapons.We are not recognising India as a nuclear weapons power", he said.

Burns also used the occasion to paint the broader aspects of the India-US strategic partnership that had a much larger bilateral focus with the two countries pursuing a wide range of issues such as cooperation in agriculture, space launch, manned space flights, business promotion and education.

He also rejected the idea that enhanced US-India relations was meant to contain China, saying it wants peaceful relations between India and China.