Four days after he said it would be “a disappointment” if the Indo-US nuclear deal does not come through though he didn’t think it would be “the end of life”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today told President George W Bush that there were difficulties in operationalising the deal.

“The Prime Minister explained to President Bush that certain difficulties have arisen with respect to the operationalisation of the India-US civil nuclear cooperation agreement,” stated a release issued here by Prime Minister’s Office.

Bush made the phone call to the Prime Minister who is in Nigeria on an official visit and will then travel to South Africa for the Second IBSA Summit in Johannesburg.

The release said Bush called Singh — it’s rare for two heads of state to speak to each other from a third country — and discussed both the deal and issues relating to the Doha Round of the World Trade Organisation.

Though speculation was rife whether the US was being told the deal was “dead”, the PM, it’s learnt, told Bush about the constraints his government was facing over the deal. There was no word on whether Singh assured Bush that his government was making efforts to resolve the “difficulties” with the deal.

ENS adds from New Delhi: In New Delhi, US Ambassador David C Mulford met External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, seeking to know India’s mind on the future of the agreement.

Mulford had been trying to meet Mukherjee for sometime, possibly to set up this teleconference but Mukherjee hadn’t been giving time. Sources indicated this was possibly to avoid sending a wrong message to the Left. But the October 9 meeting and the PM’s subsequent remarks created enough anxiety. Hence, the call and the meeting today.

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