NEW DELHI: A day after US Senators set May as the deadline for conclusion of steps on the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, government today said efforts are being made to build domestic consensus and national interest will be uppermost while taking a decision on the issue.

"We live in a democracy and in an era of coalitions ... there have been efforts to build a consensus and the efforts continue," Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma told reporters when asked to comment on the deadline set by Senators for the deal to the US Congress.

Quoting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sharma said, "national interest will be uppermost in the mind while taking a decision on the issue. The nuclear deal with the US will serve India's supreme national interest and enable the country's integration in the global mainstream to use civilian nuclear energy," Sharma said.

"The deal will be on our terms and the question of anyone putting any deadline does not arise," Congress Media Department Chairperson M Veerappa Moily said but made it clear that it was not at a standstill and was making progress.

Meanwhile, the CPI has come out strongly against the statements by American Senators. "It is a pressure tactic by the US. Starting from Condoleezza Rice and Nicholas Burns to David Mulford, they have been talking on the same lines," CPI National Secretary D Raja said.

"It is also a desperate act as their military industrial complex looks at India as a big market. It is a big opportunity for American big business which they do not want to lose," he said. The CPI leader said India, the largest functional democracy, should not fall prey to such pressures and "succumb" to their pressure tactics.

"These deadlocks are not new. We should not be much concerned," he said, adding that there was a joint mechanism in place to finalize it.

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