Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress-led administration lost its majority after a bloc of leftists and communists stopped backing the government because of their staunch opposition to a nuclear deal with the United States.

Singh met President Pratibha Patil Thursday evening to formally request a confidence vote, the prime minister's spokesman Sanjaya Baru said.

The premier also told the president that a date for the motion, which will decide whether he will be able to stay in office and push through the nuclear accord with Washington, would be set no later than Friday evening.

Ahead of the meeting, a Congress party spokesman insisted the government was in no danger of collapsing at the start of the final year of its mandate.

"The government is stable. The government has the numbers," said Manish Tewari. "When push comes to shove we will demonstrate a majority on the floor of the house."

A special parliament session was likely to be called as soon as July 21 or 22, another government source said, which would give Congress party leaders just 10 days to lobby undeclared lawmakers to cobble together the numbers.

At present, Congress and its allies have 225 assured seats in India's directly elected 545-member lower house of parliament, way short of a simple majority after 59 left-wing lawmakers withdrew support.

Last week, the regional socialist Samajwadi Party with 39 MPs promised to vote with the government but news reports say some within the group could rebel.

"What we are trying to do is to get more than the 272 required to win the confidence vote," said a senior Congress minister.

Recalling that a previous government had collapsed due to a single vote in 1999, he said: "We are not taking any chances. We are in touch with some parties in the opposition camp who have stated that they are not opposed to the (nuclear) deal."

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, who heads a regional party allied to Congress, was confident the government would sail through a vote.

"The government is safe... Everything has been arranged for (victory) and the government will prove its majority," Yadav said.

Singh and US President George W. Bush in 2005 unveiled the agreement to share civilian nuclear technology -- a deal that when finalised would see India enter the fold of global nuclear commerce after being shut out for decades.

The prime minister, who met with US Ambassador to India David C Mulford Thursday to discuss the developments on the nuclear pact, argues the deal is crucial for India's energy security.

But India's left-wing parties and the Hindu nationalist opposition insist it would bind India too closely to the United States and runs counter to India's status as a figurehead in the non-aligned movement.

They also believe that allowing UN inspections of the country's civil nuclear programme -- as demanded by the Americans -- would harm India's strategic weapons programme.

Nevertheless, the government on Wednesday finally moved forward on an agreement subjecting the country's civilian nuclear sites to international controls for the first time.

The United States on Thursday welcomed the move.

"We welcome India's willingness to move forward with this historic initiative," the US ambassador to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, Gregory Schulte, told journalists in a telephone conference call.

Firebrand Marxist leader Prakash Karat, whose party was among those that withdrew government support, branded the move a "betrayal" of the country.

But a top Indian nuclear official sought to reassure critics, saying inspections would not be allowed of sensitive nuclear sites.

"It is an agreement which would cover facilities that India voluntarily declares as civilian... but keeping the rest of the domestic programme intact," Anil Kakodkar, chair of the Atomic Energy Commission, told reporters in Mumbai.

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