The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, New Delhi

Communist allies of India's government would end support to the ruling coalition if it went ahead with a controversial nuclear deal with the United States, the most powerful left leader said on Thursday. "We won't be there to help this government conclude this agreement," said Prakash Karat, the chief of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M), the nation's biggest left party. "That's final," Karat said at a seminar on the nuclear deal. The pact -- seen as a sign of booming economic and strategic ties between the two powerful democracies -- allows India to import nuclear fuel and reactors from the United States, despite having tested atomic weapons and having refused to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty.