As the Senate rose for the day Tuesday after passing a spending bill, Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist announced that efforts were on to bring the India bill forward after the chamber completes consideration of another appropriation bill Wednesday.

Democratic Minority Leader Harry Reid, who will take over Frist's position in January following his party's victory in the Nov 7 Congressional elections, too on Monday agreed to go by three legislative priorities set by President George W. Bush: budget, Vietnam trade bill and India deal.

"We have our mind on concluding the appropriation bills and the very important nuclear agreement with the largest democracy in the world, India.  We would like to see that completed with the minimum amount of debate and amendments," he said Monday.

Senators Richard Lugar and Joe Biden, Republican chairman and ranking Democrat on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, are reported to have hammered out a consensus on the modalities of considering the enabling bill.

They are reported to have agreed on a limited number of amendments - six to eight maximum - to be debated for no more than a day and a half.

But a vote in the Senate would clear only one hurdle in the way of the deal.  Immediately after the vote, the legislation will have to go to a conference of the two chambers' leadership to reconcile the language with the different version passed by the House.

Once the conferees agree on an identical bill, the two chambers will have to approve it again before sending it to the White House for Bush to sign it into a law.

If for some reason the process is not completed before the end of the year, it will go back to square one and fresh bills will have to be introduced in the new Congress.

The Senate, which convened on Monday) for the lame-duck session, will adjourn on Nov 17 for the Thanksgiving holiday recess and then reconvene again on Dec 4 for a final two week session before handing over the reins to the new Democratic controlled chamber.

The administration and the pro-India lobby comprising US business and industry and the Indian-American community have been working overtime to push lawmakers to take up and vote on the India deal before the president leaves for Vietnam for the APEC summit on Nov 18.

Meanwhile, the Arms Control Association, a non-proliferation lobby, has written to all Senators seeking support for amendments that would address what it calls serious flaws that still plague the proposed US-India nuclear trade legislation.

The letter, signed by 18 non-proliferation advocates, warned that despite some important adjustments made to the administration's original proposal by the Foreign Relations Committee, the arrangements would have far-reaching and adverse effects on US non-proliferation and security objectives.