Rice in India but doesn't sign nuclear deal

By Susan Cornwell and Krittivas Mukherjee

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Saturday a landmark nuclear trade with India had been completed but she was unable to sign the pact during a visit to New Delhi because of bureaucratic delays back home.

The deal allowing India access to U.S. nuclear fuel, reactors and technology was effectively sealed by the U.S. Congress when the Senate passed it on Wednesday.

It overturned a three-decade ban on nuclear trade with India imposed after it first tested nuclear weapons in 1974. U.S. officials had hoped Rice could sign the accord during her whirlwind one-day trip to India celebrating the pact, which was a top foreign policy priority of President Bush's second term.

But Rice, speaking after talks with her Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee, suggested administrative procedures on Capitol Hill had delayed the enabling legislation from getting to Bush for him to sign.

She assured reporters it would be signed "soon" and that there were no last-minute substantive differences blocking completion of what admittedly had been, at times, a very "tough" process of negotiations.

"The 123 Agreement is done," Rice declared at a joint press conference with Mukherjee, using the name taken from the numbered paragraph of U.S. law that covers civilian nuclear accords. "It is a matter of signing that agreement.

"So I don't want anyone to think we have open issues. We don't have open issues," she said.

"I think you know this has been a busy time for our legislative branch over the last couple of days," she added, referring to Capitol Hill's passage of a $700 billion bank bailout plan to address a major financial crisis.