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NEW DELHI - INDIA'S ruling Congress party has decided to press ahead with a nuclear energy deal with the United States despite threats by its left-wing allies to bring down the coalition, officials said on Thursday.
Faced with losing its majority in parliament because of communist opposition to the pact, the Congress party of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been trying to strike a deal with another party that would keep it in office.
Indian media said the socialist Samajwadi Party (SP), from the key northern state of Uttar Pradesh and which has 39 MPs in the 545-member national parliament, has signalled a deal on reshaping the coalition was close.
'We are talking to a number of parties including the Samajwadi Party to secure support,' said a senior Congress leader who wished to remain unnamed.
'The meeting between SP leaders and the national security advisor yesterday (Wednesday) was part of this. We are going ahead with the deal,' he said.
Mr Singh's party has reached out to a host of political groups this week after the left-wing bloc that has propped up the administration said it was considering 'the timing of withdrawal of support.'
The nuclear deal - agreed in principle in 2005 - would allow India to buy atomic power plants and technology despite not signing international non-proliferation pacts.
Prime Minister Singh argues the pact is crucial for India's energy security.
But the four-party bloc of leftist and communist parties says it will draw traditionally non-aligned India too close to Washington, and warn that India's military programme could also be compromised.
Tensions between Mr Singh and the communists have been running high for months, and the likelihood of early elections - ahead of May 2009 as scheduled - has been seen as increasing after a crisis meeting last week between Congress and the left.
The United States has been pressing India to move on the deal before the end of President George W. Bush's tenure, warning the pact may not survive in its current form under the next administration.
New Delhi still needs to negotiate an accord with the International Atomic Energy Agency to allow inspections of its atomic plants and earn a waiver from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group before it can enter the global nuclear trade. -- AFP
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