Saturday, July 15 2006 12:22 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: As the two Houses of US Congress prepared for a vote on the legislation relating to Indo-US nuclear deal, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran yesterday (July 14, 2006) night said the bill could contain some references that India may find 'unpalatable'.

He, however, maintained that India cannot undertake any obligations going beyond the July 18 Joint Statement and the Separation Plan.

Referring to the bills providing for change of US law to allow nuclear trade with India, he said these bills are likely to be voted upon by the US House of Representatives and the Senate in the coming days and if all goes well, we may see the text of the final legislation fairly soon.

"Obviously, the legislation will be the product of an American political process and could well include some references that we may find unpalatable," Saran said.

"However that while making our views quite clear, we must focus on what is essential," he said.

The Foreign Secretary was delivering a lecture here on 'India-US Joint Statement of July 18, 2005: A Year Later'.

He underlined that India's obligations will only be those that we undertake in the bilateral 123 cooperation agreement and the safeguards agreement with the IAEA.

Noting that the Separation Plan of India's nuclear reactors presented to the US under the deal has been depicted by some analysts as eroding the vigour of our strategic Deterrent.

Saran said, "I can only state that those who are in the position to make an informed judgement on the needs of our credible minimum deterrent have concluded otherwise."