New Delhi: With the UPA-Left standoff over the Indo-US nuclear deal continuing, Congress sought to term the pact as a "life-line" of the country and hoped that the Left parties would realise the rationale behind it.

The Congress also warned that the credibility of the country would be jeopardised if India went back on the deal, he said adding that "we have now moved into a crucial stage of the deal."

"The deal is the life-line of the country. We cannot simply shut the door on it," Congress spokesman M Veerappa Moily told PTI here.

He said the credibility of the country will be jeopardised if it choses to ignore the deal. "The choice is between demographic dividend and demographic disaster," he said.

"It needs to be considered whether the country should be always limping back on the nuclear energy front or go ahead," Moily said in an apparent reference to the fuel shortage at the various nuclear power plants.

Hoping that Left parties would see reason in the argument in favour of the deal, he said "they had threatened in past, threatened to withdraw support to us but we have been able to bring them to the negotiating table.

They have so far willingly or reluctantly accepted our line over a number of issues as we have bargained or negotiated with them," he said.

However, Moily refused to comment over the possible outcome of the June 25 meeting with Left allies over the deal.

The Congress leader pointed out that the government has not surrendered any element of sovereignty while entering into this deal.

Source : PTI