NEW DELHI — India needs to act immediately on the civil nuclear agreement with the United States unless of course it is not keen on pursuing the deal any more, David Mulford, US envoy to India, said yesterday.

With less than a year left for President George Bush’s government, prospects of the successive administration giving the deal similar importance may be viewed as nonexistent, Mulford said during a television interview with CNN-IBN.

“If this is not processed in the present Congress, it is unlikely that this deal will be offered again to India. It certainly would not be revived and offered by any administration, Democratic or Republican, after the life of this administration,” Mulford said.

If the deal were to be revived, Mulford said, it would have to go through the (US Congress) Committee process. “I believe and I know both Republicans and Democrats believe in the United States that this is the time to finish this deal,” he said.

When questioned specifically on whether he was saying it is “now or may be never” for the nuclear deal, he replied: “That’s pretty close to it.” The Americans were “puzzled” on the opposition to the deal in India, wondering as to why had the pact not been immediately embraced and activated here.

He asserted that India would retain its right to conduct a nuclear test under the agreement. “It is all visible there, transparently, for anyone to see,” Mulford said.

The agreement would reverse three decades of American anti-proliferation policy by allowing the US to send nuclear fuel and technology to India, which has been cut off from the global atomic trade by its refusal to sign nonproliferation treaties and testing of nuclear weapons.

In exchange, India would separate its military and civilian reactors, and place the civilian ones under international inspections.

The deal has been touted by the Indian government as crucial to meeting the country’s growing energy needs.

But the agreement has faced significant opposition from India’s communist parties who say it would strengthen ties to the US, giving Washington excessive influence over Indian foreign policy.

Mulford dismissed those concerns as “completely untrue” and said he would be willing to meet with Prakash Karat, the leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) who has threatened to topple the government if the deal goes through.

“The United States wants to assist India in achieving its global vision of emerging as a major economic power in the world,” Mulford said. If the deal is signed, Mulford said he believes “India will become the center of a civil nuclear industry in the world.”

Communist party leaders and Indian government officials did not immediately react to his comments.

Despite resistance from opposition parties, the Indian government has pressed ahead with the nuclear deal and is in negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog agency of the United Nations, a key step in finalizing the deal. The deal must also be approved by the Nuclear Suppliers Group — a body of nations that exports nuclear materials.

The agreement also faces another review by the US Congress, where some members have expressed concerns that the extra fuel could boost India’s nuclear bomb stockpile. There are international concerns that the deal could spark a nuclear arms race in the region, where India’s neighbors Pakistan and China already have nuclear weapons.

US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, who has been instrumental in pushing the deal, also showed impatience. “Time is wasting. We don’t have all the time in the world, particularly since this is an election year... and so we hope very much that this process can now be expedited,” he said in an interview with Reuters on Friday.

Burns said: “This agreement needs now to move forward more quickly. It’s been suspended for a number of months and we hope, very strongly, that the Indians will be able to find their way forward and move this rather quickly in the weeks ahead. It is now up to the Indian government, of course, to complete this process so that we can get to a vote — as early as possible in 2008 — to the US Congress.”

Burns, a career diplomat who has been the lead US negotiator and is due to retire shortly, said he could visit India before he steps down but had no specific plans to do so.

Analysts believe the deal will ultimately win the support of Congress, where many members want to help US companies win business in India and cultivate the Indian-American lobby. However, one congressional aide who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak on the matter said it must get to lawmakers by May for the House of Representatives and the Senate to have enough time to consider and vote on it.

— With input from agencies