New Delhi: All the Left parties today (May 26, 2004) accepted the Congress' offer to make veteran Marxist leader Somnath Chatterjee the next Lok Sabha Speaker.

"All the Left parties have accepted the proposal," Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet told reporters after an hour long meeting of his party, CPI, Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP).

Surjeet said the Left parties also finalised their suggestions on the Common Minimum Programme of the United Progressive Alliance at the meeting.

"What we want is that a common approach is adopted. It will then be easier for us to accept the CMP," Surjeet said.

CPI general secretary A B Bardhan said, "We want all our points to be accommodated in the CMP."

The Left party leaders said they would attend the UPA meeting scheduled later today.