Last-minute administrative hitches forced Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, to leave New Delhi at the weekend without signing the US-India nuclear deal to end more than three decades of isolation for India’s nuclear programme.

Ms Rice’s visit, on the heels of US Senate approval of the civil nuclear deal last week, had been widely billed as concluding the agreement after three years of tough negotiations. Opposition parties in India had even intended to make Saturday a day of mourning for what they perceive to be India’s capitulation to the US.