External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to meet United States President George W Bush on Monday and brief him on the progress in the negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency on the India-US nuclear agreement.
Mukherjee will also be holding discussions with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other top officials of the Bush administration.
The visit takes place within days of Mukherjee telling Parliament that India can neither mend nor end the deal. It is also the first visit at the Foreign Minister's level since the one undertaken by Natwar Singh in April 2005.
Rice and Mukherjee will be meeting at the State Department on Monday morning for a wide-ranging discussion, on several aspects of the broadening and deepening bilateral Relations, which will include the civilian nuclear initiative.
Mukherjee, who is the chairman of the United Progressive Alliance-Left committee on the nuclear deal, will call on Bush to review the entire gamut of bilateral ties with special focus on the deal.
Though the nuclear deal is expected to dominate the parleys, officials said a meeting at this level is not restricted to one or two issues.
Questions have been raised on the fate of the deal after the minister's remarks that survival of the government was important and the deal cannot be proceeded with by a minority government.
The US has touted the nuclear agreement as the 'centrepiece' of its ties with India.
India has firmed up a draft safeguards agreement with the IAEA and has to secure changes in the guidelines of the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group to enable nuclear commerce with it.
