The Hindu Business Line : Manmohan to meet Bush in Japan on July 9

NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister, Mr Manmohan Singh will meet the US President Mr George W Bush on July 9 on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in Hokkaido in Japan when he is expected to discuss the progress in the nuclear deal after sorting out domestic poli tical problems over the agreement.

Briefing reporters on the Prime Minister's three-day visit, Foreign Secretary Mr Shivshankar Menon, however, did not give details of what they would discus but said the Government would like to go ahead with the deal “as soon as we can” but it was not po ssible to give a timeframe for it.

“We will go ahead with it as soon as we can. Once we take a decision to approach the IAEA, we will let you know,” he said adding the US was committed to getting India exemption from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for nuclear commerce under the July, 2005 civil nuclear cooperation agreement.

Mr Menon said India was in touch with members of the NSG and it would proceed on the deal “as soon as we can”. Many of the world leaders who would be attending the Hokkaido summit are also members of the NSG, he added.

Asked about US Congressman Mr Gary Ackerman's comments that time was running out for the deal, he said he would like to get into the issue of timeframe.

“We would like to go ahead with it. We go ahead with it as soon as we can,” he added. – PTI

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