Friday, May 19 2006 13:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: As it lobbied for Congressional approval for the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Bush Administration has refused to characterise the agreement as being in 'serious trouble' but admitted that more work is still left to be done to convince the lawmakers to vote in its favour.

"We would like to say that we are optimistic about the deal doing through in the Senate. But, again, we don't want to assume anything. We're not going to take anybody's vote for granted on the issue," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters here.

Asked if the Bush Administration was confident of ratification of the nuclear deal, he said, "You don't want to assume anything. But we think we have a good case with this deal. We believe that we have a good case for the American people. It's a good case for the Indian people. And overall, it benefits the international nonproliferation regime and efforts.

"Now there are 100 votes up in the Senate. And each individual senator is going to have to make up his or her mind how they vote on this," he said.

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was devoting 'enormous time' by talking to lawmakers, who have raised some 'hard questions', and the administration 'still have work to do with the Hill' on the issue, the spokesperson said.

Denying that the deal was in 'serious trouble', McCormack said he had "Not heard anyone using those terms in terms of the deal. Our discussions with senators and congressmen have been very positive on this."