A senior US senator called Thursday for a fast track endorsement this month of a landmark nuclear agreement with India as lawmakers launched a series of meetings to consider the controversial deal.
"We would be well advised to approve it this month ... rather than waiting until next year," said Democrat Chris Dodd, who chaired a meeting Thursday of the powerful Senate foreign relations committee on the nuclear initiative.
Although the agreement "is not perfect," Dodd said the "imperfections" could be addressed by lawmakers, vowing that they were "going to utilize every minute of every day available" to endorse the deal.
It is the clearest indication yet that efforts were underway in Congress to rush through with a vote on the deal, probably before it adjourns on September 26 ahead of the November 4 presidential elections.
"Approval of this agreement will still be a milestone in US-India relations and, approve it, my view, we must," Dodd said.
He acknowledged that several lawmakers had certain "concerns" in the agreement, which needed to be addressed by President George W. Bush's administration to avoid a "perfect storm" that could wreck the deal.
Signed by President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July 2005, the agreement offers India access to Western technology and cheap atomic energy as long as it allows UN nuclear inspections of some of its nuclear facilities.
If Congress endorses the agreement it would lift a three decades-old ban on nuclear trade with India, a non member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.