Washington: The White House has stressed that the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal is one of the 'top’ issues for the administration in the Lame Duck session of the US Congress.

US President George W Bush has had a meeting with senior Senate Democratic leaders in a bid to get his agenda through not only in the current Lame Duck session but also some of the remaining priority issues for the Congress.

"The top of the list, if you start taking a look at the lame-duck session, we've already laid out a series of things on which both sides can work right now: the India civil nuclear deal, a free-trade agreement with Vietnam," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters when asked to list the top issues for the Lame Duck session.

After his meeting with Bush, the present Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who is tipped to become the Senate Majority Leader, said the first order of business when the session gets under way next year is Congressional oversight.

Reid also stressed that the President and the small group of senators had discussed several issues and hoped that the spirit of bi-partisanship will also be reflected at the Lame Duck session.

"The first order of business when we reorganize after the first of the year is congressional oversight. Let's find out what's going on with the war in Iraq, the different large federal agencies that we have. There simply has been no oversight in recent years," Reid told reporters here.