New Delhi: A day ahead of their meeting on the Indo-US nuclear deal, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee met Communist Party of India-(M) leader Prakash Karat and asked the Left parties to allow the government seal the safeguards agreement with IAEA. This, he said, would also help India conduct nuclear trade with Russia and France.

But the CPI(M) general secretary is understood to have told Mukherjee that the proposal was not acceptable as it would operationalise the 123 agreement. However, when contacted, Karat refused to confirm the meeting though sources said the leaders had met late on Monday night.

The UPA-Left committee will hold its meeting tomorrow to discuss the various aspects of the deal.

As far as getting the IAEA board of governors to approve the India-specific safeguards agreement, the Left parties have maintained that this was not acceptable as it was being negotiated in the context of the Indo-US nuclear deal.

The Left parties have been saying that going to the IAEA now would only be the next step to operationalise the agreement which they cannot allow.

So far as nuclear trade with Russia and France is concerned, there was no urgency to go the IAEA now as these two countries have not even signed bilateral nuclear agreements with India. The signing of such an agreement with Russia was deferred during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's last visit to Moscow. (PTI)