May 07, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1, 1429

NEW DELHI, May 6: India’s communist-led Left Front, doggedly opposing a civil nuclear deal with the United States, has yet again rejected a move by New Delhi to clinch a related parallel pact with the IAEA, sources close to the talks said on Tuesday.

It said the UPA-Left panel on the Indo-US nuclear deal held in-depth discussions for about two hours on Tuesday on the India-specific safeguards agreement with the IAEA and agreed to meet again on May 28.

Panel chief Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told journalists after the meeting that Left leaders sought more clarifications and these would be provided to them in the next few days.

The eighth meeting of the panel held discussions on the safeguards pact between India and the global atomic watchdog, sources close to the talks said.

They said the Left parties sought clarifications on a range of issues, including guaranteed uninterrupted fuel supplies, full civil nuclear co-operation, the issue of reciprocity and implications of the Hyde Act on India’s foreign and security policies.

The government wanted the committee to give a go-ahead to it to get the approval of IAEA’s Board of Governors for the safeguards agreement, but the move got stalled as the Left sought clarifications on the issue.

The Left parties who would meet on May 23 to decide their strategy ahead of the committee’s next meeting, have also sought clarifications on certain technical aspects of the nuclear deal, including settlement of disputes and termination of agreement, reports said.