Rice makes 'full-court press' to win US approval of nuke deal

AFP
Sep 9, 2008

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is making what her spokesman calls a "full-court press" to win passage in Congress of a landmark US-India civilian nuclear cooperation deal before January. In a flurry of contacts with both houses of the Democrat-controlled Congress, Rice is telephoning and meeting key lawmakers to seal a deal that passed a major weekend hurdle, spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. Rice, he added, will also seek the Indian government's cooperation in order to reassure Congress that the deal signed by Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July 2005 carries adequate safeguards.