Pranab to hold talks with Rice during US visit

The two-day trip will be Mukherjee's maiden bilateral visit in his capacity as the External Affairs Minister. It is also the first visit at this level since Natwar Singh came to Washington in April 2005.

"Since then there has been no bilateral foreign minister visit and hence this is highly important," a senior official said.

Mukherjee will hold talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other cabinet and administration officials including those of the National Security Council.

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.

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

Amid speculation that the civilan nuclear agreement, touted by the US as the "centrepiece" of its ties with India, has been put on backburner following threats from the Left parties to pull the rug, Mukherjee on Wednesday told the Parliament that the government can neither "mend" nor "end" the nuclear deal.

"We are in a stage where neither we can mend it nor end it. We are in the dialogue stage," Mukherjee said.

Earlier, demonstrating a commitment to push the deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had told the Parliament that all efforts would be made to seek the "broadest possible consensus" on the issue.

The US has pressed India to push the deal as soon as possible with prominent lawmakers saying it should be done till July if New Delhi wanted it to be cleared under the Bush administration whose tenure is due to end early next year.

Rice will host a dinner on Monday for Mukherjee who is slated to leave on Tuesday evening to New York on his way back to India.

Mukherjee's trip adds to the number of high level visits that have taken place recently. He recently met the Defence Secretary Robert Gates. Top US Senators including Joseph Biden visited India this year and currently the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and a high level Congressional delegation are in the country.