New Delhi: The signing of the Indo-US nuclear deal, widely expected to take place Saturday, with visiting US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and Indian external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee slated to affix their signatures to the 123Agreement, may not take place after all. On the face of it this is being put down to procedural hitches, as US president George W Bush is yet to sign the Bill into law.

For India, president Bush's signature may be of particular importance not just for technical reasons of converting a Bill into law, but specifically because it expects his signing statement to address the concerns it has with the language of the Bill.

It now appears that Washington may have rejected an Indian demand made just hours before Rice was to land in Delhi for a written assurance from president Bush with respect to nuclear fuel supplies.

Post ratification from the US Congress both sides let loose a volley at each other with Rice warning of serious consequences if India should test and Mukherjee responding with the oft-stated Indian line that others had the right to react even as his country retained its right to test.

This exchange of sentiments, almost immediately after both Houses of the US Congress sanctioned the Indo-US nuclear civil cooperation Bill, may have forced president Bush to pause before affixing his signatures.

Ostensibly, the reason for a lack of presidential signature on the Bill is being ascribed to the fact that various bureaucratic mechanisms of the US Congress are completely tied down with the passage of the $700 billion bailout package because of which the Indo-US nuclear Bill is yet to receive the required official 'dressings' before it is presented for presidential signature.

If these conjectures are correct then the Rice visit to New Delhi may actually be an exploratory one where she gets a sense of the misgivings that India holds with regard to the language of the Bill and the extent to which president Bush may have to accommodate these concerns in his signing statement.

For the record it may be put down that Rice is scheduled to meet prime minister Manmohan Singh, external affairs minister Mukherjee, and also leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha LK Advani and other leaders.

Both sides will hold delegation level talks in the afternoon after which Rice meets the Indian premier in the evening. This meeting will be followed by a dinner at the prime minister's official residence.

The meeting with LK Advani may be important for it could provide Rice with a sense of the 'red line' that India's principal opposition party may have towards the agreement. As India heads into an election year the ruling coalition in Delhi is bound to project the nuclear deal as a major achievement. A harsh response from the opposition to the provisions of the Bill may force the government to go on the defensive and eventually back off from acceptance.

On the American side there is also a need to tread gingerly as a sole foreign policy victory for a beleaguered administration, so tantalisingly close, may slip away from grasp as India opts to walk away.