New Delhi: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) on Sunday once again threatened to withdraw support to the Manmohan Singh government if it went ahead with the nuclear deal with the US.

“We will withdraw support if the government goes ahead with the nuclear deal with the US by signing a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),” CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat told reporters after a meeting of the party's politburo here. "The government must not go ahead with the nuclear deal," he asserted.

The party's central committee had authorised the politburo to finalise the party's position on the India-US civilian nuclear deal as well as the support to the government against the backdrop of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's persistent efforts to ink the IAEA safeguards pact - one of the necessary steps to make the deal operational.

The threat to withdraw support by the CPI-M, which leads the Left Front that has over 60 members in the Lok Sabha, has come after the Congress, which leads the coalition government, refused to backtrack on the nuclear deal.

Source : IANS