Mukherjee, who will be making his maiden visit to the US as External Affairs Minister, will be holding discussions with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other top officials of the Bush Administration including the National Security Council.

The visit takes place within days of Mukherjee telling Parliament that India can neither “mend” nor “end” the deal.

It is also the first visit at the Foreign Minister’s level since the one undertaken by Natwar Singh in April 2005.
Rice and Pranab Mukherjee will be meeting at the State Department on Monday morning for a wide ranging discussion on several aspects of the broadening and deepening bilateral relations which will include the civilian nuclear initiative.

Mukherjee, who is the Chairman of the UPA-Left committee on the nuclear deal, will call on Bush to review the entire gamut of bilateral ties with special focus on the deal.

‘Only after polls’
On the eve of his visit to the US, Pranab Mukherjee has indicated that the text of a India-specific safeguards agreement with the IAEA has been finalised but can only be “initialled” after the political process has been completed.

“Some text has been reached, which only needs to be initialled and that waits for the political process,” he told CNN-IBN before leaving for Washington.

“The deal will be operationalised only after the IAEA, the NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group) and the US Congress give their approval and the Indian government then signs the agreement”.