Saturday, April 8 2006 09:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: The United States has said that there has been 'good' bipartisan support to its nuclear agreement with India in Congress and maintained that the administration is willing to answer questions and issues that may be raised on Capitol Hill to this effect.

"I think you're seeing yesterday(Apr 7, 2006) that there is good bipartisan support to begin the process of ratifying this agreement," White House Spokesman Scott McClellan said in response to a question.

"And this is an important agreement. It goes to our strategic relationship. It goes to our energy security and India's energy security. And it also, for the first time, will bring India's civil nuclear program under international safeguards, and that's an important development," he added going on to make the point that the President George W Bush has spoken previously of India's non-proliferation track record.

"As the president has pointed out previously, India is not a country that was engaged in proliferation. They had a good nonproliferation record. And we had to look at the reality of the situation," he said.

"But you've had Senator Biden and I think Senator Obama and others that have expressed a willingness to support this agreement, because they recognize the importance of moving forward on it to both our energy and national security interest. Undersecretary Burns has been working very closely with members of Congress, as has Secretary Rice. And the president has discussed it with members that he's had here to the White House," McClellan said.

"It's an important agreement. And we look forward to continuing to work with Congress in hearing any issues that they might want to bring up and talking to them about the importance of this agreement, answering their questions," he remarked.