NEW DELHI, March 8: The Indian government said on Saturday it had decided not to pursue a controversial nuclear deal with the United States in the near future, a prospect that would have angered the Left Front and prompted snap polls.

Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told NDTV channel there was no question of an early poll now. When asked about the May deadline set by senior US senators and officials for the deal to reach the US Congress, Mr Mukherjee said: “Of course there is a timeframe because they have an election process but so far as India is concerned, we have mentioned to them that it’s not possible for us to work within a specific timeframe”.

Denying the possibility of an early election before May 2009, Mr Mukherjee said: “I do not think so because we want the polls in due time. I do not visualise anyone thinking of an early election, our coalition partners or coalition supporters are not talking of an early election”.

“There is no talk of sacrificing the government for something,” he said when asked if there was a debate in the Congress party about whether the nuclear deal is worth sacrificing the government for.

Mr Mukherjee’s clarification came a day after the general secretary of the Communist Party of India, A.B. Bardhan wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh threatening to withdraw support if moves to clinch the deal were not stopped immediately.

Mr Mukherjee, however, said that the Left’s threat is not new. “They have always said that if you proceed with civil nuclear cooperation with the US, they will have to withdraw support”.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of India (Marxist -- the biggest member of the Left Front which gives vital support to Dr Singh’s government) has clarified that they never intended to destabilise the coalition.