No goalposts moved: Rocca

8216;8216;We are very busy with conversation on Capitol Hill, the thinktank, with the nuclear suppliers group, international partners and friends8230;,8217;8217; Rocca said, while noting that there are 8216;8216;lot of questions8217;8217; in the US Congress.

8216;8216;I am optimistic as to where we are going,8217;8217; she said adding that the civilian nuclear arrangement is 8216;8216;well in train8217;8217; and hoping that legislation will come about in early 2006.

The agreement was signed in Washington on July 18 between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President George W Bush, under which the Unites States implicitly recognised India as a nuclear weapons state and agreed to supply fuel for the Tarapore reactor following a series of commitments by New Delhi, including that of separating civilian and military facilities.

Rocca said the July-18 meeting was in many ways the culmination of 8216;8216;four years of hard work together, to take the relationship to a whole new level. So, now we have a new agenda that is on a totally different level8230;.8217;8217;

8216;8216;A lot of things are now given. Our political conversations are so drastically different from that four years ago. We are now on a new level,8217;8217; she said. 8216;8216;It was a pretty ambitious agenda that we set on July 18 and we8217;ve already started working on a number of things.8217;8217;

She disagreed with the argument that Washington and New Delhi had moved 8216;8216;backwards8217;8217; in that they first came to a general agreement on the nuclear deal and then sought to work on details and flush out the political dynamics.

8216;8216;I don8217;t agree with that perspective. What we agreed on is a mutual goal that we will work towards. If you look at the language it8217;s very clear8230;It8217;s a very big change in the US policy8230;This is a big step forward. Had we done it the other way around, it would not have worked. There is no doubt about it,8217;8217; she said.

8216;8216;8230;Working out a deal like this means a lot of work on both sides and there is no argument there,8217;8217; she said, adding, 8216;8216;the dialogue with US Congress has begun. The various elements that need to be done, certainly on our side, are moving along.8217;8217; Rocca also brushed aside the notion that the Bush administration has resorted to moving goalposts in the aftermath of the accord on the civilian nuclear deal or that it is asking New Delhi to do something 8216;8216;more8217;8217;. 8216;8216;No. Absolutely not. The language is carefully drafted8230;I would absolutely say that no goalposts were moved on both sides we are not asking anything of India that we are not asking ourselves, that we are not willing to do ourselves.8217;8217;

8216;8216;There is no question of moving goalposts. There are people opposed to it who would like to frame it that way. I think they are wrong,8217;8217; Rocca countered.

She also disagreed with a thinking that Bush should postpone his India visit, tentatively scheduled for early next year, if the civilian nuclear deal is not concretised. 8216;8216;I could not disagree more,8217;8217;

Rocca said. 8216;8216;There are so many things going on in the US-India relationship on so many different fronts that are very good. We are really happy he8217;s going. This is a relationship that has momentum, and the time to go is exactly now. The relationship is not about this one nuclear issue,8217;8217; she said.