The Indian government is working hard to take the Indo-US nuclear deal forward. That is the message Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images] wants the visiting delegation of the United States-India Political Action Committee to take back to America.

The prime minister on Tuesday thanked the delegation, led by chairman Sanjay Puri, for paying a visit to New Delhi at "this critical juncture in Indo-US. relations".

Terming it a "labour of love", Singh praised the work done by USINPAC for the Indian-American community and for the Indo-US ties for the last five years.

"We met the prime minister who received us very graciously, and found him determined to take the deal forward despite some opposition typical in a vibrant democracy like India," Puri said in a press release.

Puri told Singh that they look forward to engaging with him and India in passing the historic agreement.

On the opposition to the deal, the Prime Minister said, "Those who feared that our foreign policy would be influenced by signing this deal should know that India was a big country and could not be arm-twisted by anyone," the release added.   

Stressing that the agreement was the best way forward for India, the United States, and the world, Singh said the American side had done a lot of work to get this deal despite political opposition and also in supporting India in the process.

The US-India Political Action Committee is the political voice of Indian-Americans, and provides bipartisan support to candidates for federal, state and local office, who support issues that are important to the Indian-American community.