Indian leaders to discuss crisis over US nuke deal (1st Lead)

New Delhi - Indian President Pratibha Patil was due to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday to discuss the political situation after communist parties withdrew parliamentary support to his government in a dispute over a civilian nuclear deal with the United States. Officials at the Presidential Palace said the meeting slated for Thursday evening would make it clear whether the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) will seek a confidence vote in the parliament. Patil asked Singh's office for the meeting after four left-wing parties having 59 members in the parliament snapped ties and demanded a trust vote on Wednesday, saying the government was reduced to a minority. The communists, who describe the nuclear deal as a 'sell-out' of India's strategic sovereignty, took the decision soon after Singh met US President George W Bush on the margins of the G8 summit in Japan and discussed progress on the deal. The India-US nuclear agreement, reached in July 2007 after two years of negotiations, would allow the US to trade fissile materials and technology with India, ending a three-decade ban. According to officials, Patil may advise Singh for the trust vote during the meeting. She could also follow a precedent set by former president KR Narayanan of not calling for a confidence vote if she was convinced that the UPA government had the requisite numbers. Congress party politicians said the UPA, with new-found support from its former rival Samajwadi (Socialist) Party, has more than 272 members in the 543-member Indian parliament, that is required to pass the floor test and prove a majority. But with two of the 39 SP members of parliament saying they would defy party whip, the UPA government would have 263 votes - nine short of 272, and the UPA managers are desperately courting members of smaller regional parties to gain the numbers. The Singh-Patil meeting on Thursday comes against the backdrop of India's circulating a draft nuclear safeguards agreement among the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) members in Vienna. The safeguards agreement is required to be approved by the IAEA board of governors before Delhi secures an exemption from the Nuclear Suppliers' Group and sends it to the US Congress for ratification. Under the safeguards agreement made public by the Indian government, India will have access to the international nuclear fuel market, including reliable, uninterrupted and continuous access to fuel supplies from companies in several nations. The agreement also contains support for an Indian effort to develop a strategic reserve of nuclear fuel to guard against any disruption of supply over the lifetime of Indian reactors. This was a contentious issue that had held up talks for weeks. India will also identify and separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities and programmes in a phased manner to file with the agency a declaration regarding its civilian nuclear facilities. Meanwhile, the communist parties and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attacked the government for going to the IAEA without facing the trust vote first. 'The government's decision to go ahead with nuclear deal is nothing but shocking betrayal of commitment to the country and the people,' CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said. But Congress accused the leftist parties of misleading the country. 'They know very well that parliamentary support would be initiated well before the board of governors of the IAEA meet to approve the agreement. Only circulation among members is being done now,' Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told the PTI news agency. 'They are a making a mountain when not even a molehill exists,' he added.