U.S. tabling nuke deal with Russia

The White House will withdraw a U.S.-Russia civilian nuclear cooperation agreement from congressional consideration, the administration said Monday.

The Bush administration, however, was careful not to tie its action directly to Russia's incursion into Georgia.

Sean McCormack, assistant secretary of state for public affairs, read a statement from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

"We make this decision with regret," Rice said in her statement. "Unfortunately, given the current environment, the time is not right for this agreement. We will re-evaluate the situation at a later date, as we follow developments closely."

The Kremlin was notified of the decision via the U.S. Embassy in Moscow last week but McCormack declined to discuss any Russian response thus far.

When questioned by reporters about whether the action was directly linked to the Georgia situation, McCormack replied "if you look at Georgia or if you look at a number of different occurrences that have happened with Russia over a period of time in the past -- you know, I'm not going to set a precise time, but over a period of time, we've had some deep concerns about Russian behavior."

McCormack said later the Russians "shouldn't be legalistic" about when they will pull out of Georgia. "They know what they need to know," he said. "They need to get out of Georgia."

The civil nuclear agreement was signed in Moscow four months ago after two years of negotiations. Among other things, it would facilitate joint ventures between Russian and U.S. nuclear industries and would clear the way for Russia to import thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel, a business venture worth potentially billions of dollars.