August 12, 2007	Sunday	Rajab 27, 1428

NEW DELHI: India's prime minister has dared communist allies to withdraw their support for the ruling Congress-led coalition if they are unhappy with a landmark India-US civilian nuclear deal.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh insisted in an interview with the Kolkata-based Telegraph newspaper on Saturday that the technology pact, seen as a centrepiece of new, warmer US ties, would not be renegotiated.

“... it is not possible to renegotiate the deal. It is an honourable deal, the cabinet has approved it, we cannot go back on it,” he was quoted as saying.

“I (have) told them to do whatever they want to do, if they want to withdraw support (for the Congress coalition government), so be it,” Singh said.

The communists, who prop up the ruling coalition, have rejected the deal as bringing New Delhi too close to the US and jeopardising India's strategic sovereignty.

Later in the day, Singh sought to smooth over differences over the deal with the communists and dismissed chances the dispute might trigger a snap election.

“All these problems can be resolved and will be resolved amicably,” Singh, who is due to defend the deal in parliament on tomorrow told reporters.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), the biggest in the four-party Left bloc, had said in response to Singh's published remarks that the premier must realise the deal “is not acceptable to the majority in parliament.” The accord, which seeks to bring India into the loop of global atomic commerce after a three-decade gap, and give its burgeoning economy greater access to nuclear energy, has also been rejected by the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“We do not share the optimism that India can become a great power with the help of the United States,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Prakash Karat said.

India is a country with enough resources and self-confidence to carve out its own development path, he added.

“As far as the approach to the government is concerned, we will take our own counsel,” said Karat.—AFP