As National Security Adviser M K Narayanan prepares to meet United States Vice President Dick Cheney on the civilian nuclear deal, the Bush Administration has agreed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's [Images] assessment that talks on the issue had entered the last leg.

Asked for his comments on Dr Singh's assessment, State Department Spokesperson Sean McCormack said, "Well, we hope that's in fact the case. The United States has expressed its commitment and expressed its desire to reach an agreement. And we're sure that the Indian government wants to reach an agreement. The question is a matter of when and the timing of it."

"Certainly, there's no time like the present to reach a deal. We had some preliminary discussions. There are going to be some more discussions with Nick Burns and Richard Boucher. So we'll see. I think we'll have a better idea, towards the end of the day, as to where we are," he added.

Meanwhile, Narayanan is expected to meet US Vice President Dick Cheney, sources told PTI.

"The negotiations are going on," said a source not wanting to get into the details of what may have transpired at the White House or the State Department meetings.

Both sides held high-level talks to iron out differences.

Narayanan held parleys with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice besides his counterpart Stephen Hadley to push the talks that have got stuck due to differences on the issues like reprocessing and India's right to conduct nuclear test in future.

"The atmospherics were excellent," a source told PTI after the meeting with Rice and ahead of one-on-one discussions between Narayanan and Hadley on the 123 Agreement, that will operationalise the civil nuclear deal.