The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, New Delhi

The communist parties that support India's ruling coalition have backed off their strong opposition to a landmark nuclear deal with the United States, clearing the way for the pact to go forward after months of high-stakes political gamesmanship.

The Communists, who had threatened to topple the government over the accord, said Friday that the governing Congress party could go ahead with talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which would need to approve any nuclear agreement.

After meeting with the nuclear watchdog, however, the government must again consult with the communist parties, said Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The pact would reverse three decades of American anti-proliferation policy by allowing the U.S. to send nuclear fuel and technology to India, which has been cut off from the global atomic trade by its refusal to sign nonproliferation treaties and its testing of nuclear weapons.