President George W Bush on Saturday said  that he is “pleased” with outgoing Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns for agreeing to continue to handle the “historic” Indo-US civil nuclear deal in which Washington has been making “progress” under him.

“He (Bush) is pleased that Under Secretary Burns will continue to serve in an advisory capacity as the United States continues to make progress on the historic civilian nuclear agreement with India,” the White House said in a statement.

No time limit
Burns has been set with no time-line for completion of the deal with India and also no decision has been made to allot him the title of a “Special Envoy” for the deal. “...No  timeline. I would expect it to continue as long as it’s in the interests of the secretary to have Nick doing that,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. “I don’t know that we’ve settled on a title yet, but he would remain focused on that particular issue. I think he’s uniquely positioned, given his role in negotiating,” he said adding that “Nick’s one of these guys that manages to find 27 hours in the day”.

Bush hailed the services of the outgoing third-highest-ranking diplomat of the State Department.