Washington:  The United States says its civil nuclear deal with India has removed an obstacle inthe growth of their relations, but there's a lot of hard work left to do toimplement the agreement.

"Well, the future is wide open, obviously. We haveremoved one of those obstacles to more full, broader and deeper relationsbetween the United Statesand India,"State department Spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters yesterday(Feb 5, 2007).

"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is seeking to build onthis relationship, talking about how the two countries might cooperate furtherin political, economic as well as diplomatic endeavours," he said.

"There are a number of different interests that we havein common. And in the coming months andin the remaining two years (of Bush administration), I'm sure you will see thesecretary work with her Indian counterparts to build on the good start that wehave," McCormack said.

"However, at this point he had nothing to announce by way ofany high-level visits. In large part, these relationships are going to begoverned by nongovernmental interactions, business interactions,people-to-people exchanges, USstudents studying in India,Indian students studying in the United States, "he said.

In reply to a question about cross-border terrorism between Pakistan and Afghanistan, McCormack said,"Sure. It's still a problem. And the Afghan government knows it, thePakistani government knows it, and we have been involved and continue to beinvolved with both governments."

"Pakistanhas an interest in a stable, prosperous, democratic Afghanistan. The rest of the region including India has aninterest in that as well, "he said.

"And clearly the rest of the world does as well. NATO has a lot of troops on the groundthere. So everybody wants to see thatsituation more stable over the long term. Part of that equation is getting at the infiltration going both ways ofTaliban terrorists along that border area," McCormack said.

"We have a trilateral commission that is set up toimprove the communications between the two governments as well as to improvethe effectiveness of their efforts to stop cross-border infiltrations goingboth ways,"he said.

"Both Pakistanand Afghanistanhave responsibilities in this regard. They have improved their coordination. They have improved somewhat the effectiveness of that coordination, butthere is clearly a lot more that needs to be done," McCormack said.

In response to a question about Bangladesh, McCormack said US is inclose contact with the caretaker government. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nick Burns had talked onthe phone to the head of this government a month ago urging them to be asinclusive as possible in the election process.

"I know that there were some concerns about by at leastone significant party in the election process," he said.

But "Bangladeshis are going to have to work through allof these issues themselves. What weencourage is an electoral process that is free, fair and transparent, is asinclusive as possible for all responsible parties, so that when you do have aresult it is a result that can be accepted by the Bangladeshi population as awhole" McCormack said.