Washington, Oct 2 (IANS) Republican presidential candidate John McCain has hailed the Congressional approval of the India-US civil nuclear deal, while taking a dig at his Democratic rival Barack Obama for offering “deal breaker” amendments initially.When his running mate Sarah Palin met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New York last week, they “stressed their commitment to moving forward on the civil nuclear accord as part of a deepening of our relations”, McCain stated Thursday.

But “during the Senate’s previous consideration of this important legislation, Senator Obama supported efforts that would have killed this accord”, McCain said.

“His own running mate, Senator Joe Biden, described one of the provisions Senator Obama voted for as a ‘deal breaker’.”

“We took a different approach: I wanted to make the deal, not break it, and I have supported the US-India Civil Nuclear Accord from the beginning,” said McCain.

“Accordingly, yesterday’s Congressional action is welcome.”

McCain, Obama and Biden all voted in favour of the nuclear deal when it came up for final approval before the Senate Wednesday.

Biden, who is also chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, hailed the “Senate’s historic passage” of the India deal as a “a victory for US-India relations, which will increase the prospect for stability and progress in South Asia”.

McCain said he and Palin “congratulate the Congress on moving this important legislation forward” to clear “the way for the US-India Civil-Nuclear Agreement to come into force”.

“India has been a responsible democracy and this agreement allows it to become further integrated into the global effort to control proliferation of dangerous technologies,” McCain noted.

The agreement, he said, “will also allow the US and India to cooperate in taking maximum advantage of new technologies that can provide energy without relying on greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels.”

“Our friendship with India is rooted in the norms and values we hold in common with the great democracies of Asia. Indian Prime Minister Singh has called liberal democracy ‘the natural order of social and political organization in today’s world’,” McCain said.

When Palin met with Manmohan Singh “they once again reaffirmed the shared values that are the bedrock for the prosperity and stability we all desire,” he said.

“They also stressed their commitment to moving forward on the civil nuclear accord as part of a deepening of our relations.”