Washington, Sep 29 (PTI) The Bush administration has expressed doubts if the civilian nuclear deal would be passed in the Senate before law makers break into recess this weekend in spite of "pushing hard" for the legislation to be done.
"We are pushing hard - the administration is pushing hard to get all the pre-required agreements up on the (Capitol) Hill so that they can schedule a vote for it, and to do that as soon as possible... We would certainly hope that that could get done in the next couple of days," State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said yesterday.

"I don't know if that's going to happen. There's a lot of pressing business up there on the Hill. But we certainly are pressing very hard to get this done in this session and as soon as possible" the Spokesman added.

McCormack said the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had a "good meeting" with Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukheerjee in New York.

"It was a good meeting. The vast majority of their conversation was about the civilian nuclear deal and all the various parts and components to that. So that was really the focus of their discussion," he said.