Updated on Wednesday, October 25, 2006, 00:00 IST

Washington, Oct 25: Republicans and Democrats could talk to each other with a view to coming to terms with the Indo-US nuclear deal that is currently bottled up in uncertainty in the Senate, a US-based group working for promotion of cooperation between the two countries has said.

The Coalition for Partnership with India (CPI) has stressed that the nuclear deal is a viable but challenging proposition in the lame duck session of the Senate that is due to get underway on November 13 and has called on the White House to make a public statement that this legislation is indeed one of the priorities during the session.

"...The Coalition for Partnership with India believes passage in this Congress is a viable, if challenging, goal. "Success will require a Senate vote early in the lame-duck session in order to permit time for reconciliation of differences with the House version and final approval in both chambers," the CPI has said in a statement.

"The first step is to secure a unanimous consent resolution (UC) defining the number of amendments to be considered and the amount of time for debate. Republicans and Democrats do not appear to be that far apart on either issue. The coalition asks its supporters to urge each side to talk to the other, to compromise, and to reach an agreement so that the bill can be taken up immediately in the lame duck session," it said.

But even before talking of priorities of the lame duck session it is being pointed out that the civilian nuclear deal runs into major problem if the Democrats win either the House of Representatives or the Senate or both.

The point made is that in spite of all that talk of strong bipartisan support for the deal, the Democrats will be unwilling to give anything to the President George W Bush and that too on his terms.

Analysts are also making the point that should the Democrats come away victorious politically that will strengthen the hands of the hardline non proliferation lobby in the Senate making the chances of the deal getting through all the more difficult.

The Bush administration continues to maintain that the nuclear deal is a "top priority" and is hopeful of the legislation clear the Senate during the lame duck session.

In the first week of November a high level State Department delegation is expected to be in New Delhi to talk about the so-called 123 Agreement;and the senior officials will be joined by the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns who is expected to be in India prior to the start of the Senate lame duck session.

Bureau Report