Saturday, May 27 2006 12:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: The Bush administration has expressed confidence that it will be able to work with the Congress in getting through the civilian nuclear deal with India first making the lawmakers comfortable on the questions they may have about the impending legislation and then working through the issues subsequently.

Talking to reporters yesterday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and White House are 'deeply involved' in moving the process forward.

"The U.S. Undersecretary (Nicholas) Burns met with his counterpart in London. I think that they were able to tie up a couple of loose ends concerning things that the Indian government owed the United States in order to really move forward on this deal," he said.

"On the side of working with the Congress, our executive branch is working with the Congress, Secretary Rice has been involved in this process. Undersecretary Burns has been involved in this process, talking to senators and representatives on the Hill about: How do you structure the legislation and how do you bring this up for a vote? "he said.

"Our hope is that we can work with the Congress to structure the legislation in such a way that they're comfortable, answer their questions that they may have about the legislation and then work through these issues this spring and summer" McCormack said.

"There's a lot of activity up on the Hill right now, but it is our hope that we can move forward with consideration of legislation in the spring and summer. We think it's an important deal, it's good for the U.S, it's good for India, it's good for the world" he said adding "Secretary(of State Condoleezza) Rice is deeply involved, as well as the White House, in trying to move this process forward," he said.