US President George W. Bush met with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday, saying that the White House is making great effort to get US-India civilian nuclear agreement approved by the US Congress.

"We are working hard to get it passed as quickly as possible," Bush said while talking to Singh at the White House. "It's in the U.S. interest to have a good strong strategic relationship with India."

Under US-India civilian nuclear agreement signed in March 2006, India will get access to US civil nuclear technology on the condition that India is to separate nuclear facilities for civilian and military use and open its nuclear facilities for inspection.

The Bush administration believed that the US-India Agreement for Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation (also known as the 123 Agreement) will bolster international nonproliferation efforts, provide economic and business opportunities in both countries, and help India address its growing energy needs in an environmentally responsible manner.

However, American critics described the agreement as "a bad deal for everyone."

"The nuclear agreement was a bad idea from the start," because the White House "extracted no promise form India to stop producing bomb-making material. No promise not to expand its arsenal. And no promise not to resume nuclear testing," the International Herald Tribune said in its editorial earlier this month.