N-deal: UPA, Left to meet today

The crucial meeting of the UPA-Left committee on the Indo-US nuclear deal will be held here tomorrow where the government is expected to hand over the Left leaders copies of the draft India-specific safeguards agreement it has reached with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Government is also likely to brief them on the over three-month long negotiations it held with the IAEA on the safeguards agreement.

The meeting comes in the backdrop of major Left parties asserting that they would withdraw support to the Congress-led government if it went ahead with the nuclear deal with the US.

However, the Left parties have been saying that they would not be responsible if the government falls.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads the committee, exuded confidence that the government would be able to convince the Left parties.

"I am hopeful of sorting out the issue (with the Left)," Mukherjee had said.

CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said that the Left parties were totally opposed to the deal as it was "anchored in the Hyde Act" which had conditions that were against the interests of India.