Mumbai: The Congress has rejected a deadline set by the Left parties to the UPA government to clarify its stand on the Indo-US nuclear deal and set a date for prime minster Manmohan Singh to meet US president George W Bush on the sidelines of the G8 summit.

Sovereign governments or political parties cannot be subjected to deadlines, Congress spokesman  Abhishek Singhvi said after the Left parties set a 7 July deadline for the government to clarify its position on approaching the IAEA for the nuclear safeguards agreement.

''We are working towards triple objectives - to do a nuclear deal in national interest, to carry along our allies with us for that purpose and to go to elections as per the Constitutional schedule,'' he said.

He also thanked the Samajwadi Party for its offer of support. He also rejected suggestions that the Samajwadi Party and the Congress have never been mutually untouchable.

''We believe that the nuclear deal is in national interest and are happy that other parties in the national interest are slowly converging to our view point,'' he said.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh will meet US president George W Bush on 9 July on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in Hokkaido in Japan when he is expected to discuss the progress in the nuclear deal.

Briefing reporters on the prime minister's three-day visit, foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon, however, did not not give details of what they would discuss but said the government would like to go ahead with the deal "as soon as we can" but it was not not possible to give a timeframe for it.

"We will go ahead with it as soon as we can. Once we take a decision to approach the IAEA, we will let you know," he said adding the US was committed to getting India exemption from the Nuclear Suppliers Group for nuclear commerce under the July, 2005 civil nuclear cooperation agreement.

Menon said India was in touch with members of the NSG and it would proceed on the deal "as soon as we can".

Many of the world leaders who would be attending the Hokkaido summit are also members of the NSG, he added.