Left-wing parties storm out of Indian coalition

Perino brushed aside a question about whether Singh was expected to announce that he is ready to move ahead with the agreement, saying it was “premature to say” before the leaders met on the margins of a rich nation summit.

“But obviously we’ve maintained a strong commitment to carrying through on our side of the deal, and obviously India has had a lot of discussion among its political parties,” she told reporters.

“It’s been a long road, and there’s been a healthy debate,” Perino said.

“We’ll have to see what he’s able to bring on the India civil nuclear agreement,” she said. “It could be that he’s ready to move forward - but it also could just as likely be that they have a little bit more work to do.”

“But we obviously recognise as well that we have a limited number of legislative days for our congress to get a lot of work done,” said the spokeswoman.

Singh arrived Monday in Toyako, where he was expected to tell Bush he will move ahead on the stalled nuclear cooperation accord despite tough opposition.