India wants US support on nuke deal: Pranab

Mukherjee said India needs the bipartisan support of the Senate in the passing of the nuclear deal.

In his first comments as India's new external affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee said on Tuesday that New Delhi is hoping for bipartisan support in the US Senate on the nuclear deal.

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"We are hoping for bipartisan support when the Senate votes on the nuclear deal," Mukherjee told reporters after an oath-taking ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan at which three new ministers were inducted into Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's council of ministers.

Mukherjee, however, refused to elaborate on his agenda, smilingly saying, "Wait till tomorrow."

He will formally take charge on Wednesday at the South Block, his office just a long corridor away from his previous charge as defence minister.

He was previously the foreign minister in the government of prime minister PV Narasimha Rao in 1995-96.