US President George W. Bush (R) welcomes India's Foreign Minister Pranab Kumar Mukherjee to a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House March 24, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Indian Minister of External Affairs Prenab Kumar Mukherjee in Washington on Monday with the two sides having pledged to beef up cooperation relations in various fields.

"We have had an opportunity to talk about the deepening of our economic ties, of our defense cooperation, the deepening of our dialogue about regional issues," Rice told reporters after the meeting.

On the US-India civil nuclear cooperation deal, Rice insisted that it is "good for both sides and good for the future of nonproliferation ... we will continue to work on that agreement." But the secretary did not elaborate.

Mukherjee, who joined the briefing, spoke highly of the development of India-US relations, saying "we agreed to maintain the positive momentum, generate particularly by the visits of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the United States in July 2005 and that of President Bush to India in March 2006. "

The Indian minister also called the US-India civil nuclear cooperation deal a "landmark agreement". Admitting "we have some political problems in our country", he noted "Currently, we are engaged in resoling those problems."

The United States and India reached the historic agreement on civil nuclear cooperation in March 2006, under which India will get access to US civil nuclear technology on condition that India is to separate nuclear facilities for civilian and military use and open its nuclear facilities for inspection. The nuclear deal has met with strong opposition in both India and the United States.

(Xinhua News Agency March 25, 2008)