Washington: President George W Bush today said his administration is "working hard" to get the Indo-US nuclear deal approved "as quickly as possible", ending hopes of the agreement being signed to coincide with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit here in the absence of a Congressional approval.

"We want the (123) Agreement to satisfy you and get it out of our Congress. And so we are working hard to get it passed as quickly as possible," Bush told reporters at the Oval office in the White House after a 40-minute meeting with Singh.

The two leaders later broke for dinner at the Old Family Room. Singh flew in from New York to Washington for a seven-hour working visit to Washington.

Looking towards the Prime Minister, Bush said it has taken "a lot of work on both our parts, a lot of courage on your part, and of course we want the agreement to satisfy you and get it out of our Congress.

"And so we are working hard to get it passed as quickly as possible," Bush said in a manner of reassuring the Prime Minister about his administration's intentions for quickly operationalising the landmark deal.

Bush said it was in US interest to have a "good, strong strategic relationship with India and we ve worked hard to achieve that."

"One such sign of that relationship is the India-US civilian nuclear agreement," he said.

The Prime Minister also spoke about the nuclear agreement, "sincerely" hoping that it will be approved in a manner which will be "satisfactory" from the point of view of both India and the US.
Source : PTI