August 15, 2007	Wednesday	Sha’aban 1, 1428

NEW DELHI, Aug 14: India's prime minister met his communist allies on Tuesday in a bid to ease differences over a landmark US civilian nuclear deal denounced by leftists as an infringement of national sovereignty.

The meeting came a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh delivered a strong defence of the deal in parliament — while the communists registered their opposition by staging a walkout in both houses.

The prime minister met with Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Prakash Karat to discuss the accord, which seeks to bring India into the loop of global atomic commerce after a gap of three decades.

The pact allows India to buy civilian nuclear technology while possessing nuclear weapons, despite not adhering to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The nuclear agreement has won praise from India's defence scientists who say national strategic interests have been safeguarded.

Last week, Singh dared the communists who prop up the ruling Congress coalition in parliament to withdraw its support if it disliked the agreement.

But afterwards both sides indicated they wanted to patch up their differences.

“Karat and the prime minister reiterated that efforts would be made to sort out the issues,” the prime minister's spokesman Sanjaya Baru said in a short statement. He did not elaborate.

Singh on Monday told parliament that the deal did not in any way affect India's right to undertake future nuclear tests if it was in the country's national interest.

He said there was nothing in the agreement that would tie the hands of a future government or legally constrain its options to protect India's security and defence needs.

Agreed in principle last year, the detailed pact governing nuclear trade between India and United States — was concluded in Washington last month.—AFP