The United States government has no high-level contact with New Delhi on the Indo-US civil nuclear agreement, after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to her External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday.

State department spokesman Sean McCormack gave this information while commenting on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's [Images] reported remark that the agreement was delayed, but not yet dead.

The Indo-US Nuclear Tango

McCormack said, "'I'm sure that Ambassador Mulford is in frequent contact with the Indian Government about the deal, but in terms of the state department, the phone call from the secretary (on Monday) is the most recent high-level contact that I can report." However, he added that his comment on the Prime Minister Singh's statement was the same as he had stated earlier.

"We continue to support the deal. We have encouraged India to move forward with it. But they are working through an intense domestic political debate. That is going to play out on the terms defined by the Indian people and their elected representatives. But we continue to support the deal," he said.