Talks continue to resolve stand-off on N-deal with Left

NEW DELHI: Congress on Tuesday continued efforts to find a way to end the stand-off on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal with top party leaders holding discussions with the Forward Bloc, which wanted a political solution to the issue.

After a meeting with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Forward Bloc leaders Debabrata Biswas and G Devarajan favoured a political solution to the issue.

"The issue should be settled politically," Biswas told after meeting Mukherjee, who was assisted by Defence Minister A K Antony and senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel.

Asked whether the leaders would like to be a part of the committee expected to be set up by the government to look into the issue, Biswas said, "Definitely, yes. But it is for the government to decide on the composition of the committee."

"The committee should be a political committee," he said.

A meeting of the UPA-Left apparently to concretise the mechanism proposal is likely to be held tomorrow in which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and other top coalition leaders are expected to be present.

Mukherjee had met top leaders of CPI (M) and CPI separately yesterday as part of moves to resolve the crisis triggered by Left parties' demand that the government should not operationalise the deal.

While there was no word from the Congress side, both the Left leaders insisted that the proposed mechanism to go into issues arising out of the provisions in the Hyde Act in the US and the 123 agreement recently entered into between the two countries should be at the political level involving leaders from both sides.