India declines to indicate any time frame for achieving agreement on a nuclear pact with the US despite previous warnings by Washington.

"At this juncture, it is difficult for me to indicate any time frame by which we will be able to complete this process," visiting India's foreign minister told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday in Washington.

He was speaking a day after meetings with US President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Mukherjee said the coalition government in New Delhi was still seeking consensus on the deal opposed by its communist allies.

"There are certain issues which are yet to be resolved. Unless those are resolved, it will be difficult for us to fix any particular time frame."

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack on Tuesday said as time goes by "it gets more and more difficult" to win US congressional approval because of the truncated legislative calendar this year in advance of the Nov. 4 Presidential election.

Mukherjee told reporters that India has completed negotiations for an agreement on India-specific safeguards with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The agreement, however, has not yet been signed or forwarded to the UN nuclear watchdog's board of governors for approval and it would also need approval from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.

India's communist members of the coalition oppose the deal as detrimental to India's security.

Nonproliferation advocates also believe the agreement undermines global efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

MHE/DT