Members of India's troubled coalition were to hold fresh talks Monday over a stalled nuclear deal with the United States, with left-wing parties demanding to know if the accord may still go ahead.
The dominant Congress party of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appeared to buckle last week to opposition from its leftist allies, who had threatened to withdraw their support and force early elections if the pact went ahead.
The prime minister has argued the accord, which will bring India into the loop of global atomic energy commerce, will help meet the future energy needs of an economy steaming along with an annual growth rate of nine percent.
But the communists say the deal, which would involve India being subjected to more international inspections, could harm the country's nuclear weapons programme.
They are also opposed to closer political and strategic ties with Washington.
The deputy head of the Communist Party of India, D. Raja, told AFP that during Monday's talks, left-wing parties "will ask the government to state its position clearly, to tell us whether the nuclear deal is on hold or not."
A senior official from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which also props up the government in parliament, Sitaram Yechury, told reporters that the left would review its position after Monday's talks.
He said the government needed to make clear "how it wishes to proceed and on that basis, we will take our future decisions."
Singh's Congress party has been giving conflicting signals over the future of the deal over the past week.
Last week he told US President George W. Bush that New Delhi was having trouble implementing the deal due to leftist opposition, and went on to admit that "one has to take certain disappointments."
But once the deal was being described as dead, Singh said he was still hopeful of a compromise with his partners in the cabinet and parliament.
