Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images] on Saturday stated that the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement could be finalised before September.

Terming his talks with US President George W Bush as productive, Dr Singh told media persons, "I cannot assert that I got the final answer from President Bush on Friday. I can only talk about the atmospherics. The agreement will need some more negotiations before we see light at the end of the tunnel."

Commenting further, he said: "There are several ideas around. This is an ongoing process. All we are interested in is that the substance of the 123 agreement should confirm with what I told the people of India, what I told Parliament."

"I think various permutations and combinations are being discussed. There is no finality, still we see light at the end of the tunnel," Dr Singh said.

Dr Singh confidently gave a political savvy reply when rediff.com asked him about the political opposition to the 123 agreement within India, particularly the Opposition by the BJP, the newly-formed Third Front and by the Left parties.

He said, "It does not bother me. I have always said that we should judge politicians not by what they say when they are in opposition but what they do when they are in seat of power."

"I am quite sure any patriotic Indian, if she or he had reins of running this country, they would have welcomed the deal. What we are attempting would end India's nuclear isolation, preserve the integrity of our strategic programme and at the same time, open new pathways for India to co-operate in international civil nuclear energy. Energy is our critical bottleneck," he observed.