Washington, Saturday 27 Sept 2008: With the US Congressional process on the nuclear deal taking longer than anticipated, US president George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were unable to put the finishing touches to the nuclear deal in Washington.

The US House of Representatives has debated Indo-US nuclear deal but the vote has been postponed until Saturday.

The debate lasted 40 minutes in the 435-member US Congress. The support for nuclear deal House was bipartisan. Howard Berman backed 123 agreements in the House.

The bill amending America’s Atomic Energy Act to allow American companies to sell nuclear fuel and technologies to India was introduced on the floor after over 24 hours of hectic negotiations between lawmakers and the Bush administration.

India has been unhappy with the last-minute additions to the nuclear deal bill in both the Senate and House of Representatives where riders have been included on nuclear co-operation ending if India tested a nuclear weapon and the US preventing other NSG countries from continuing nuclear trade in such a scenario.