The announcement came as both the State Department and White House said Washington was watching Russia's plans to stage unprecedented joint naval maneuvers with Venezuela in Venezuelan waters.

With moves toward new US-Russian cooperation taking a direct hit, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Bush decided Monday to pull the nuclear deal from consideration by the US Congress for now.

"We make this decision with regret," Rice said in a statement read by her spokesman Sean McCormack. "Unfortunately, given the current environment, the time is not right for this agreement."

"The president intends to notify Congress that he has today rescinded his prior determination regarding the US-Russia agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation," according to the statement.

The Russian government was notified last week of the planned decision via the US embassy in Moscow, McCormack told reporters.

He said the US move is a response to "deep concerns about Russian behavior" -- not just the Russian military incursion into Georgia last month -- and said the decision could be reevaluated based on future actions.

However, a State Department official who had expected the deal to be postponed made it clear last week that "Russia's behavior has to be condemned and there have to be consequences that flow from (its actions) in Georgia."

The agreement aimed to allow US and Russian companies to form joint ventures in the nuclear sector and gives the go-ahead for exchanges of nuclear technology between the two countries, according to officials on both sides.

Under the deal, Russia would also be able to reprocess spent nuclear fuel originating in the United States, which accounts for most of the world market, in a move that has raised fears of Russia being turned into a nuclear dump.

Bush and his Russian counterpart at the time Vladimir Putin inked the agreement at a summit in Kennebunkport in the United States last year and discussed it again in the Russian resort of Sochi last month.

The State Department has sought to play down the impact on non-proliferation of the deal's postponement.

"The US nonproliferation goals contained in the proposed agreement remain valid: to provide a sound basis for US-Russian civilian nuclear cooperation; create commercial opportunities; and enhance cooperation with Russia on important global nonproliferation issues," Rice's statement said.

The decision to postpone the nuclear pact came months after Rice and Defense Secretary Richard Gates, during a visit to Moscow in March, hailed areas of cooperation with Russia, despite tension over what Russia sees as US encroachment in its former sphere of influence.

The White House and the State Department also said Monday that they were watching Russia's planned joint naval maneuvers with Venezuela in Venezuelan waters, but the Pentagon said it was not concerned.

Russian troops poured into Georgia last month to repel an attack by the Georgian army aimed at retaking South Ossetia. They have remained deep inside Georgian territory in what Moscow calls "security zones."

A senior Georgian official welcomed Monday as a "very important achievement" an EU-brokered deal that will see Russia withdraw its troops from all of Georgia except for two rebel regions.

He said it was a step toward full implementation of the six-point ceasefire agreement brokered by France to end hostilities between Russia and Georgia that erupted last month.

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