Howard Berman, Chairman of the crucial House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the deal should be shelved till January next as there is not enough time for the Congress to study it by September 8 when it is scheduled to meet next.

The key lawmaker warned that a waiver by the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) "inconsistent" with the Hyde Act will "jeopardise" the deal in the US Congress.

The NSG is expected to meet on August 21 to consider granting India one time waiver to facilitate India resume nuclear commerce while the Bush Administration is attempting to fast track the deal by planning to bring it before the US Congress around September 8. India is pressing for a clean and unconditional waiver from the NSG.

The Congressional panel will examine the 123 Agreement when it is presented to the Congress for its approval. "I am a friend of India and a supporter of US-India nuclear cooperation. Yet I find it incomprehensible that the Administration apparently intends to seek or accept an exemption from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) guidelines for India with few or none of the conditions contained in the Henry J. Hyde Act," Berman said in the letter made public on Thursday.