Daily Excelsior... World

Oil prices spike back
above 61 dollars

SINGAPORE, Dec 9: Oil prices spiked back anove 61 dollars in Asian trade today as a cold snap chilled the US northeast and led to predictions of higher demand for heating oil, ...... ....more

Reports detail bird flu effects on US

WASHINGTON, Dec 9: A pandemic of bird flu could cause a serious recession of the US economy, with immediate costs of between 500 billion dollars and 675 billion dollars, according to two. ...........more

Asia fears spillover
from icy Japan-China ties

TOKYO, Dec 9: Japan's Prime Minister heads to an Asian summit next week hoping to lead the debate on regional cooperation, but many fear .....more

Six-nation climate
talks in Sydney
next month

CANBERRA, Dec 9: Six of the world's biggest polluters will meet in Sydney next month to discuss global warming, Australia said today, as UN climate talks in Montreal neared a vague road map ..........more

Muslims agree
development plan
but funding unclear

MECCA, SAUDI ARABIA, Dec 9: Muslim leaders agreed to set up a fund for development and emergency relief for those in need among the world's one billion .... ......more

China police probe
owner of mine where
74 died

TANGSHAN, CHINA, Dec 9: Chinese police are investigating the owner and managers of a coal mine where an explosion killed at least 74 people, and ............more

Japan princess turns 42, hopes to resume duties

TOKYO, Dec 9: Japan's Crown Princess Masako, who turned 42 today, expressed hopes she could gradually resume her official duties after being mostly ..........more

150 stem cells lines
needed for British
therapeutic bank

LONDON, Dec 9: Scientists have calculated that about 150 stem cell lines derived from embryos would be needed to one day establish a therapeutic stem cell bank in Britain. .... ..........more

Corruption on increase worldwide, survey shows ........

End of the road for London's iconic Routemaster bus........

Brain cells by millions die during a stroke .........

US-India relations at a "whole new level": Rocca......

Oil prices spike back above 61 dollars

SINGAPORE, Dec 9: Oil prices spiked back anove 61 dollars in Asian trade today as a cold snap chilled the US northeast and led to predictions of higher demand for heating oil, dealers said.

At 11:35 am (0905 IST), New York's main contract, light sweet crude for January delivery, was up 56 cents to 61.22 dollars a barrel from its close of 60.66 dollars in the United States yesterday, topping the 60-dollar mark for the first time since November 4.

"The prices have warmed. They are reacting to forecasts of cold weather for large portions of the US northeast," said Victor Shum, an analyst with energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz in Singapore.

Crude futures had fallen on Wednesday after the Department of Energy (DoE) revealed sharp rises in US energy stocks over the past week but the cold snap in the US northeast, the world's largest heating oil market, was the market's main focus, dealers said.

The market was "still focussing on the prospect of cold weather in the US increasing demand" for heating fuel, Sucden analysts said in a note.

"Colder-than-normal temperatures are forecast to continue until this weekend, increasing demand and adding support to the market," they said.

Dealers said prices were expected to increase if the cold weather persists, a likely scenario since the Northern hemisphere's winter season has started.

"The fourth quarter seasonally is the peak demand period for oil driven by cold weather in the Northern hemisphere ... So we can expect higher prices," Shum said. (AFP)

Reports detail bird flu effects on US

Both assume the H5N1 avian influenza now destroying flocks of poultry across Asia and parts of Europe makes the jump into humans and causes serious disease.

So far, H5N1 has killed 69 people and infected 135, but world health experts say it is very close to mutating into a form that easily passes among people.

If it does, it would likely closely resemble the 1918 pandemic strain of flu that killed anywhere between 20 million and 100 million people during World War I, both reports say. This means 30 per cent of the population would be infected and more than 2 per cent would die, the report from the Congressional Budget Office presumes.

''Further, CBO assumed that those who survived would miss three weeks of work, either because they were sick, because they feared the risk of infection at work, or because they needed to care of family or friends,'' the report published yesterday reads.

''In addition to workers' absences, many businesses (such as restaurants and movie theaters) would probably suffer a falloff in demand because people would be afraid to patronize them or because the authorities would close them.''

Doctor's offices and hospitals would be overcrowded, the CBO predicts.

''Currently, the United States has approximately 970,000 staffed hospital beds and 100,000 ventilators, with three-quarters of them in use on any given day. As a result, shortages could occur in critical areas such as ventilators, critical care beds, and drugs to treat secondary infections,'' the report reads.

HOSPITALS SPREADING INFECTION

Hospitals would have difficulty controlling infection and might become sources for spreading the illness, the CBO said -- a fear echoed by another group, the National Center for Policy Analysis .

A second report from New Jersey based WBB Securities LLC estimated 35 per cent of the population would become ill and 5 per cent would die.

It predicts a one-year economic loss of 488 billion dollars and a permanent economic loss of 1.4 trillion dollars to the U.S. Economy.

''If the influenza affected humans at the same level of virulence as the current H5N1 strain, practically all patients would require hospitalization, which would result in a shortage of some 6.5 million hospital beds per day during the pandemic,'' the WBB report reads.

''Police, fire, sanitation and other critical service providers will be strained with short staff and overtime work, which will impact municipal and state budgets,'' it adds.

''There may even be civil disturbances caused by people who either believe they can take advantage of the situation or who feel they have little chance of survival so they may as well enjoy themselves while they can.''

The reports support other predictions that have been made about the potential effect on the U.S. Economy. The World Bank has predicted a pandemic could cost the global economy 800 billion dollars a year.

U.S. President George W. Bush released a 7.1 billion dollars bird flu plan in November but Congress has yet to fund it. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said he hopes for legislation before the recess this month, but many conservatives are afraid the deficit is already too big and want to make cuts to pay for the spending.

One part of the plan involves building stockpiles of influenza drugs, which would not provide a cure but which might help make the most vulnerable patients less ill. (AGENCIES)

Asia fears spillover from icy Japan-China ties

TOKYO, Dec 9: Japan's Prime Minister heads to an Asian summit next week hoping to lead the debate on regional cooperation, but many fear Tokyo's icy relations with Beijing will hinder his efforts.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is facing increasing isolation from Japan's East Asian neighbours -- China and South Korea -- because of his visits to a Tokyo war shrine, seen by the two countries as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

Beijing and Seoul, both upset at Koizumi's annual pilgrimage to the Yasukuni shrine, have already given him the cold shoulder, saying their leaders will not hold separate talks with the Prime Minister when they gather for a summit in Kuala Lumpur.

The three countries meet annually with the 10 countries in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

A trilateral summit between Japan, China and South Korea held every year on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting will also not take place.

Resentment at Japanese wartime aggression still lingers in China and South Korea, both victims of Japan's military aggression, and they have demanded that Koizumi stop his visits to Yasukuni, which honours some convicted war criminals along with Japan's 2.5 million war dead.

''However hard we may try to forget about the past, put the unfortunate past behind, some people are constantly reminding us ... rubbing salt to the wounds, scratching the old wounds so they would not heal,'' South Korean Ambassador to Japan Ra Jong-yil said earlier this week.

Southeast Asian nations have not made Japan's past an issue but worry that the friction in East Asia, coupled with rivalry between Tokyo and Beijing for regional leadership, will jeopardise efforts for closer cooperation.

''These two big countries should balance each other. There is no other option,'' said Jusuf Wanandi, a prominent Indonesian analyst. (AGENCIES)

Six-nation climate talks in Sydney next month

The Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate between Australia, the United States, Japan, India, South Korea and China was unveiled in July aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions by developing energy technology.

Australia said the January 11-12 meeting of the group, which grew from a brainstorming meeting of 20 countries on climate change in Britain at the start of the year, would be attended by foreign, energy and environment ministers from the six nations.

Officials in Canberra initially said the talks would be held in the southern city of Adelaide in November this year, but attempts to arrange the talks proved too difficult.

According to figures released by the partnership, the six founding partners of the new pact account for 45 per cent of the world's population, 48 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and 48 per cent of the world's energy consumption.

The pact, dubbed ''beyond Kyoto'', has been described as complimentary to the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions that the United States and Australia have refused to ratify.

Both nations say Kyoto could threaten economic growth and that excluding large developing nations such as China and India from meeting emissions targets did not make sense.

Delegates at the November 28-December 9 U.N. Climate talks in Montreal said yesterday that ministers from more than 90 nations were close to agreeing on a negotiating plan -- without a firm timetable -- to extend Kyoto beyond 2012.

Asia-Pacific partnership pact members say cleaner technology is a better way to curb emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that many scientists blame for rising global temperatures. (AGENCIES)

Muslims agree development plan but funding unclear

MECCA, SAUDI ARABIA, Dec 9: Muslim leaders agreed to set up a fund for development and emergency relief for those in need among the world's one billion Muslims but failed to say how they would raise the money.

After a two-day summit in the holy city of Mecca they also agreed a 10-year plan to increase trade between Muslims and to curb religious extremism, which they said has driven the Islamic world into crisis.

''Our plan is about moderation and modernisation,'' said Ekmelettin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) yesterday.

''Moderation to fight the causes of extremism and modernisation to pull the Muslim world out of under-development,'' he said.

OIC member states range from Gulf Arab states, flush with cash from record oil receipts, to poor African and Asian nations like Niger and Bangladesh. They include the conflict zones of Afghanistan and Iraq and countries where Islamist militants have waged campaigns of violence.

Leaders agreed in Mecca to set up a fund for disaster relief and development and called for intra-Muslim trade to be raised to 20 percent from 13 percent within 10 years. But they failed to say how they can achieve their goal.

''The Islamic Development Bank will start studies on the fund,'' Ihsanoglu told Reuters. ''As to other programmes of the plan, they will require a longer time to be implemented.''

FUNDING ISSUES

A senior delegate at the talks said the leaders could not agree how to finance the fund, given the huge disparity of wealth among OIC members.

''We don't expect poor Muslim countries to offer a percentage of their budget of their GDP,'' he said. ''But one symbolic dollar contribution, or one Muslim dinar, a year will be enough providing that the commitment is there,'' he said.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he hoped the fund would be large enough ''to support nations that don't have anything''.

He cast doubt on a summit declaration that one dollar for every Muslim would be collected to preserve Islamic identity in Jerusalem, which the OIC said must be the capital of a future Palestinian state.

''It's a good idea ... But there are a lot of Muslims in the world who earn less than a dollar a day,'' he told Reuters.

Summit host King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday extremists had hijacked Islam and left Muslims weak and divided.

In a challenge to militants who justify attacks on fellow Muslims by declaring them unbelievers, the leaders said on Thursday no Muslim can excommunicate another. They said a fatwa, or religious edict, should only be issued by qualified scholars.

They also backed a proposal by host Saudi Arabia to set up an international counter-terrorism body, and expressed concern at what they said was an increase in Islamophobia in the world.

Officials said during the two-day summit they wanted to breathe new life into the OIC, which has been ineffectual since it was set up 36 years ago with the aim of recovering East Jerusalem from Israel after the 1967 Middle East War. (AGENCIES)

China police probe owner of mine where 74 died

TANGSHAN, CHINA, Dec 9: Chinese police are investigating the owner and managers of a coal mine where an explosion killed at least 74 people, and have also frozen the colliery's bank accounts, state media said.

Wednesday's blast at the Liuguantun mine in Tangshan, northern Hebei province, was the latest in a string of accidents to strike the world's deadliest mining industry, making a mockery of safety campaigns which have been largely ignored.

Booming demand for energy and high coal prices mean regulations are flouted, production is pushed beyond safe limits and closed mines reopen illegally.

''The mine's safety situation is very bad,'' mine worker Zheng Xinqqing, whose older brother and cousin were killed in the explosion, told Reuters today. ''Work safety officials have never inspected our mine.''

The formerly state-owned coal mine was privatised in 2002, and it was being renovated when the explosion happened, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

''The owner and managing staffs of Liuguantun Coal Mine ... Have been placed under police control for investigation,'' Xinhua said in a late night report seen today.

Thirty-two miners were still missing in freezing temperatures at the colliery, 180 km east of Beijing.

Local people said most of the miners were from poorer, inland parts of China.

Families of the dead would each be compensated 200,000 yuan (24,770 dollars), state media said.

China has been struggling to clean up its mining industry, which killed 2,700 people in the first half of 2005 alone, but a string of accidents in recent weeks has shown that a succession of safety campaigns has failed.

The government has been trying to close small mines to consolidate the industry, demanded officials sever financial links with mines and called for managers to head underground on each shift to check safety standards.

Six miners were still missing after a coal mine flood on Thursday trapped seven in Changchun, capital of northeastern Jilin province, Xinhua added in a brief report.

China's foreign ministry on Thursday said the country paid great attention to safety and put the blame on local authorities putting more stress on production than workers' lives. It also suggested it would not be an easy problem to solve.

''China is a vast country with a large population,'' spokesman Qin Gang told a regular news conference without elaborating. (AGENCIES)

Japan princess turns 42, hopes to resume duties

TOKYO, Dec 9: Japan's Crown Princess Masako, who turned 42 today, expressed hopes she could gradually resume her official duties after being mostly out of public view for the past two years due to a stress-related illness.

Masako, a Harvard-educated former diplomat, said she was slowly recovering from a mental disorder caused by the stresses of adapting to royal life, but her doctors noted her condition was not stable and that she was still receiving counseling and treatment with drugs.

''My physical condition is gradually improving, and very slowly I am becoming able to appear in public,'' Masako said in a statement. ''While being supported by the people around me, I will try to recover both physically and mentally.''

Royal-watchers have said pressure to bear a male heir was a key cause of Masako's plight.

Masako and her husband, Crown Prince Naruhito, have one daughter, Aiko, who turned four last week.

Under current law, only males can ascend the throne, but the government plans next year to submit to parliament a bill that would give women equal rights to do so.

That would clear the path for Aiko eventually to become Japan's first reigning empress in centuries.

Masako's doctors said she was making progress but urged patience.

''Physically, she still has ups and downs, and her condition is easily influenced by mental and physical stress,'' the doctors said in a report made available by the Imperial Household Agency, which handles the royal family's affairs.

Masako, who gave up her career as a diplomat to marry Naruhito in 1993, had hoped to act as a ''royal envoy'' after her marriage, but her travel has been restricted by court officials.

In a nod to those ambitions, the doctors said: ''It will be quite important that she be able to use the knowledge and experience she acquired prior to her marriage ... And that this be reflected in her official duties.''

Some of the pressure on Masako may ease if the imperial succession law is changed to allow women to ascend the throne.

Advisers to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi last month recommended that women be allowed to do so to avoid a succession crisis due to the fact that no boys have been born into the royal family in four decades.

Media reports, though, have said that traditionalists, eager to preserve what they believe is an imperial male line stretching back more than 2,000 years, might exert pressure to delay implementation of the changes to give Masako time to bear a son.

Masako today sounded like any mother astonished at her child's growth.

''In no time at all, Aiko has turned four,'' she said.

''I feel very emotional at the idea that next year she will already enter kindergarten.'' (AGENCIES)

150 stem cells lines needed for British therapeutic bank

LONDON, Dec 9: Scientists have calculated that about 150 stem cell lines derived from embryos would be needed to one day establish a therapeutic stem cell bank in Britain.

''The study, although a simulation of the projected requirements, provides the UK Stem Cell Bank with initial targets for the population of a bank that could meet long term therapeutic objectives,'' Justin St John said.

The lecturer at the University of Birmingham in England said in a commentary in The Lancet medical journal where the findings were published on Friday that the scale of what needs to be done is now clearer.

Stem cells have the potential to provide new therapies for diseases ranging from cancer and diabetes to Alzheimer's disease and spinal cord injuries.

Britain set up the world's first stem cell bank in May 2004 to store and supply the cells for research and ultimately treatments for human illnesses.

Although stem cell therapies are still many years away, scientists have tried to estimate the number of stem cell lines -- reservoirs of cells derived from single human embryo -- that would be needed to match recipients in the most cases.

''We found that about 150 donors would give a very good match for about one in five recipients,'' Professor J. Andrew Bradley, of Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, England, told a news conference.

That number would also provide a modest match for about 90 per cent and an intermediate tissue match for about 50 percent to 70 per cent of patients.

The researchers also identified a sub-set of stem cells from 10 human embryos that could theoretically provide a very good match for about 38 per cent of recipients.

MULTIPLE RECIPIENTS

Like donor organs, stem cells from a therapeutic bank need to be matched to the recipient as closely as possible to minimise the risk of rejection and the need for immunosuppressant drugs.

But unlike a heart, lung or liver transplant, which is provided by one donor for one patient, a single stem cell line could be used for multiple recipients.

The use of embryonic stem cells is controversial because the master cells that can form into any cell type in the body are derived from spare in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) embryos.

Bradley and his colleagues, who reported the findings in The Lancet medical journal, estimated the number of stem cell lines needed by analysing the blood group and tissue types of 10,000 organs donors for their compatibility to 6,577 patients registered on the British kidney-transplant waiting list.

''A bank of 150 donors provided the maximum utility,'' Bradley explained, adding that full matches were found for only 2 per cent of black and Asian recipients.

Last week British finance minister Gordon Brown announced the country would double spending on stem cell research to 100 million pounds (173 million dollars) over the next 2 years. Part of the funding will be used to support the stem cell bank.

Britain, along with South Korea, Singapore and the United States, is one of the leaders in stem cell research. Spain, the United States, Singapore also have plans for stem cell banks. (AGENCIES)

Corruption on increase worldwide, survey shows

LONDON, Dec 9: Corruption is on the increase in most countries and poor people are often the hardest hit, according to a global survey released today.

The poll, published on United Nations Anti-Corruption Day, found a majority of people in 48 out of 69 countries surveyed thought the problem had got worse over the past three years.

''Today's survey shows that people believe corruption is deeply embedded in their countries,'' said Huguette Labelle, chairwoman of anti-graft group Transparency International, which commissioned the Global Corruption Barometer research.

''When a poor young mother believes that her Government places its own interests above her child's, or that securing services like that child's basic health requires a hand under the table, her hope for the future is dampened.''

Overall, people rated political parties as the most corrupt institutions. But customs officials were seen as the most corrupt in many Central and Eastern European states while the police and legal systems often came top of the poll in Africa.

The survey also showed paying bribes was not confined to specific regions but was particularly prevalent in Central and Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America.

More than 30 percent of households in Cameroon, Paraguay, Cambodia and Mexico had paid a bribe in the past year.

Between 11 and 30 percent of households had done the same in a further 22 countries, many of them developing nations but also including European states such as Greece and the Czech Republic.

People in Africa -- the poorest continent -- appeared to pay the highest proportion of their income in bribes, the campaigning group said.

Top of that list were Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria, where households paid more than 20 percent of national per capital income in bribes.

Transparency International, a Non-Governmental group based in Berlin with branches in more than 90 countries, said leaders could combat corruption if they made a determined effort.

A UN convention against Corruption, signed by 137 nations, enters into force on December 14 and the group said systems must be put in place to ensure governments stick to their commitments.

''Signing the document and taking part in the photo opportunity is not enough,'' said chief executive David Nussbaum.

Nearly 55,000 people in 69 countries were surveyed for the Corruption Barometer as part of a Gallup poll conducted between May and October 2005, the group said. It said the survey would be posted on its web site, www.Transparency.Org. (AGENCIES)

End of the road for London's iconic Routemaster bus

LONDON, Dec 9: Britain's capital bids a fond farewell today to the Routemaster double-decker bus that for half a century has been as synonymous with London as Big Ben.

Loved by tourists and locals alike the distinctive red buses have plied their trade since 1956, but deemed as expensive antiques they have been gradually retired since the 1980s.

At midday the last Routemaster -- the number 159 -- will travel from Oxford Street to Brixton bus garage in south London, ringing in the end of an era.

Yesterday clusters of amateur photographers could be seen along the 159's route eager to get a final snap of the vehicle that is as famously British as Beefeaters and red phone boxes.

The buses -- replete with a conductor, cord-pull bells and an open rear boarding platform which allowed passengers to get on and off even when the bus was moving -- are viewed by many as irreplaceable classics.

Few other buses have fan clubs or a dedicated website.

''It's born of London for London. And it's the last of its kind,'' said Travis Elborough, author of ''The Bus We Loved'' a homage to the buses, some of which travelled continent-busting distances during their long working lives.

''There is an enormous sort of emotional attachment to these buses,'' Elborough told Reuters.

''I think that a lot of it is just that the experience of travelling on them for many people is a lot more pleasurable than maybe, travelling on certain replacements which have all the aesthetics of the inside of a hoover attachment.''

Snub-nosed and light-bodied, with the driver enclosed in splendid isolation in his cab, the last Routemaster was built in 1968. They had been designed to last no longer than 17 years.

Since the late 1950s countless visitors to London have climbed the narrow stairs and settled into the front seats for an inexpensive bird's eye tour of the city's top attractions. At their peak 2,760 trundled throughout London.

And while passengers will no longer be told to ''hold very tight please'' as the conductor gave the bell-cord two sharp tugs to signal the bus was departing, not everyone will shed a tear.

The buses' design effectively excluded many people with disabilities and parents struggling with pushchairs.

''While Routemasters were operating, certain people couldn't use them,'' Bert Massie, Chairman of the Disability Rights Commission told Reuters.

He said he understood the romance that surrounds the Routemaster. But pointed out that a bus is a means of getting from A to B and should fulfil that role for all passengers.

''I have a certain sympathy with the whole nostalgia thing, but the world moves on,'' Massie said.

But the buses, which starred in films and television series, will not completely disappear -- a few will continue on two London heritage routes for those who can't let go. (AGENCIES)

Brain cells by millions die during a stroke

NEW YORK, Dec 9: When someone suffers a stroke, 1.9 million nerve cells in the brain die each minute, and the oxygen-starved brain ages about 3.6 years each hour -- further emphasizing the need for rapid treatment -- researchers say.

''Time is brain' is a popular saying: clinical outcomes have been shown to deteriorate the longer treatment is delayed,'' study author Dr Jeffrey L Saver, from the University of California in Los Angeles, told Reuters Health.

However, he added, until recently the technology did not exist to precisely count the number of neurons lost with each passing minute that the blood supply is interrupted to the affected region.

Advances in stroke neuroimaging coupled with data from previous research have allowed Saver to estimate the neuron loss that occurs during a typical stroke.

The average stroke involves 54 milliliters of brain tissue -- about 3 cubic inches -- and takes 10 hours to evolve, the investigator reports in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke.

As noted, each minute a stroke ticks by untreated, 1.9 million neurons die, resulting in the loss of 14 billion synapses (nerve junctions) and 7.5 miles of nerve fibers.

According to the report, the forebrain, the most common site of strokes, contains a total of 22 billion neurons, on average.

''I was simultaneously not surprised by the findings, but astounded by the magnitude,'' Saver said. ''From caring for patients whose lives are forever altered by crippling stroke, I knew intuitively that stroke is a devastating disease that evolves rapidly. On the other hand, seeing the raw numbers of exactly how much damage occurs astounds me.''

The findings drive home the message that ''patients need to recognize stroke symptoms and call 911 right away. ER physicians, neurologists, and nurses need to recognize that stroke is a treatable neuro emergency that has to be handled at the highest triage priority.'' (AGENCIES)

US-India relations at a "whole new level": Rocca

WASHINGTON, Dec 9: Terming the Indo-US ties as being on a "new level", Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca has said the landmark nuclear agreement between the two countries was "well in train", brushing aside the notion that Washington is "moving goal posts" and bringing new conditions for implementing it.

"We have begun the conversation on the civilian nuclear cooperation...There will be meetings coming up this month and next month where we'll start talking a little more concretely about how the plan might look like, how we move forward," she said in an exclusive interview to PTI when asked about the July 18 agreement which is yet to be approved by the US Congress.

"We are very busy with conversation on Capitol Hill, the Think Tanks, with the Nuclear Suppliers Group, international partners and friends...," Rocca said, while noting that there are "lot of questions" in US Congress.

"I am optimistic as to where we are going" she said adding the civilian nuclear arrangement is "well in train" and hoping that legislation will come about in early 2006.

The agreement was signed in Washington on July 18 between Prime Minister Manmohan and President George W Bush, under which the US implicitly recognised India as a nuclear weapons state and agreed to supply fuel for the Tarapore reactors following a series of commitments by New Delhi, including that of separating civilian and military facilities.

Rocca said the July 18 meeting was in many ways the culmination of "four years of hard work together to take the relationship to a whole new level. So now we have a new agenda that is on a totally different level than we talk about it."

"A lot of things are now givens. Our political conversations are so drastically different from four years ago. We are now on a new level," she said.

"It was a pretty ambitious agenda that we set on July 18 and we've already started working on a number of things."

She disagreed with the argument that Washington and New Delhi had moved "backwards" in that they first came to a general agreement on the nuclear deal and then sought to work on details and flush out the political dynamics.

"I don't agree with that perspective. What we agreed on is a mutual goal that we will work towards. If you look at the language it's very clear...It's a very big change in US policy... This is a big step forward. Had we done it the other way around, it would not have worked. There is no doubt about it," she said.

"...Working out a deal like this means a lot of work on both sides and there is no argument there," she said, adding, "the dialogue (with US Congress) has begun. The various elements that needs to be done, certainly on our side are moving along."

Rocca also brushed aside the notion that the Bush administration has resorted to moving the goal posts in the aftermath of the accord on the civilian nuclear deal or that it is asking New Delhi to do something "more".

"No. That is absolutely not. The language is carefully drafted...I would absolutely say that no goal posts were moved on both sides We are not asking anything of India that we are not asking ourselves, that we are not willing to do ourselves.

"There is not a question of moving goal posts. There are people who are opposed to it who would like to frame it that way. I think they are wrong," Rocca countered.

She also disagreed with a thinking that Bush should think of postponing his India visit, now tentatively scheduled for early next year, if the civilian nuclear deal has not concretised. "I could not disagree more," Rocca said.

"There are so many things going on in the US-India relationship on so many different frionts that are very good. We are really happy he's going. This is a relationship that has momentum, and the time to go is exactly now. The relationship is not about this one (nuclear) issue," she said.

Asked if the Bush White House and the administration had the "political capital" on Capitol Hill to push this civilian nuclear agreement with India, Rocca expressed optimism that members of Congress "will see this in US interest, in India's interest and also in the interests of the non-proliferation regime as a whole."

Noting the bilateral relationship has a lot of supporters, she said, "US-India relations is a loss for nobody. Everybody understands it."

"This particular aspect (the civilian nuclear agreement) has some controversy... We want to make sure we're right. We believe it would be a net gain for the world non-proliferation regime. And it is a question of convincing that and making our arguments; and I think we'll be able to do it," she remarked.

Rocca stressed teh Iran nuclear isse is very important for both the administration and Congress. "We are very grateful to the Indian vote at the IAEA... We think we are on the same wavelength with India and we hope we remain on this. It is important to global security as a whole," she said.

The Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia also praised the statesmanship shown by leaders of India and Pakistan and retierated the American position that it is not the business of Washington to put forth the way forward in the settlement of issues between the two countries.

Rocca expressed hope that the two countries will be able to keep up the momentum in the peace process.

"We've said all along that the solution to the problem is not for the United States to forward...It certainly wants to be as encouraging as it can. There is an opportunity here, an opportunity and statesmanship, that is shown on both sides that is greatly appreciated by the U S administration.

"Our hope is that both countries will be able to keep the momentum that was created..," Rocca said.

She stressed that the United States would like to see South Asian region stable, democratic, peaceful with some countries on the road to democracy, peace processes successful and good governance.

"There are enormous challenges as you can see," the State Department official remarked pointing to the goings on in Nepal and Sri Lanka.

On Nepal, Rocca pointed out the steps that were taken "backwards" from democracy "which we believe fell right into the hands of the Maoists--strengthening the hands of the Maoists." (PTI)