US President George Bush on Thursday telephoned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the progress of the India-US nuclear deal and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations, according to reports from Washington. "Both leaders expressed their desire to see the US-India civil nuclear issue move forward as expeditiously as possible," an AFP report quoted United States National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe as telling reporters in Washington. "[Mr Bush] looks forward to continuing to work with the [Indian] government to strengthen the United States-India strategic relationship," the official said. A Reuters report, in turn, said Mr George Bush and Dr Manmohan Singh discussed the need for leading trading countries to contribute to a breakthrough in the Doha round of world trade talks. "The President and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh discussed the importance of all leading WTO members making contributions to a breakthrough that will put the Doha round negotiations on a path to conclude an ambitious agreement before the end of the year," it said quoting Mr Johndroe. Meanwhile. the US has also lauded India's "deep resolve" to go ahead with their nuclear deal as secretary of state Condoleezza Rice met minister of state for external affairs Anand Sharma twice to discuss the "next steps" for finalising the pact. External affairs ministry sources said Ms Rice and Mr Sharma had a meeting on Thursday on "issues related to concluding the historic deal" within hours after they first met on Wednesday night. "Both the leaders discussed the next steps for finalising the deal," the sources said. The two leaders also met on Wednesday night on the sidelines of Asean ministerial meet here and talked on the "entire gamut of issues" relating to the civilian nuclear deal. They had a "very good" meeting during which Ms Rice appreciated India's "deep resolve".