Mukherjee to meet Bush in Washington

The visit takes place within days of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee telling Parliament that India can neither "mend" nor "end" the deal.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to meet US President George W Bush on Monday and brief him on the progress in the negotiations with IAEA on Indo-US nuclear deal.

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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 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.

Though the nuclear deal is expected to dominate the parleys, officials said a meeting at this level is not restricted to one or two issues.