NEW DELHI, 31 August 2007 — With the left remaining adamant on its stand, the Congress finally agreed yesterday to form a panel to study the controversial nuclear deal with the United States.

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government also assured the left that the deal would not be put into operation till this committee completes its work.

The announcement was made after talks between senior government leaders and their communist allies. The composition of the committee, expected to include members from the Congress, left, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), will be announced shortly.

A day earlier, the communists had demanded a government assurance that it would not pursue negotiations seeking global approvals for the deal before the left parties joined the panel.

Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who made the announcement, said the government had decided to form a panel “in view of certain objections raised by the left parties” to the agreement, seen as a cornerstone of a growing friendship between India and the United States.

The panel would look into “certain aspects” of a bilateral nuclear agreement finalized last month and what implications a framework American law would have on India’s nuclear self-reliance - issues raised by critics of the deal.

It would also study the “implications of the nuclear agreement on foreign policy and security cooperation,” the minister said. “The operationalization of the deal will take into account the committee’s findings,” he told reporters.

The civilian nuclear cooperation deal aims to lift a three-decade ban on sales of US nuclear fuel and reactors to India, imposed after it conducted a nuclear test in 1974 while staying out of non-proliferation agreements.

While the deal has been hailed as historic by Washington and New Delhi — who were on opposite sides of the Cold War — the communists say it compromises India’s sovereignty and imposes American hegemony.

Analysts say the panel would give the government time to convince the communists while pursuing key global approvals needed before nuclear trade between the two countries can begin.

India needs to conclude a safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, get unanimous backing of the Nuclear Suppliers Group and the approval of the US Congress before the deal can come into force.

Remaining adamant on their demand, the left leaders also decided not to be a part of the proposed committee, the government had agreed to set up, unless the government publicly announced its decision to freeze negotiations on operationalizing the deal.

“We will not join the panel until the government publicly indicates that it would not go ahead with safeguard negotiation,” A.B. Bardhan of Communist Party of India (CPI) said. “Whatever is being done would have to be in the eye of the camera,” Bardhan said.

— With input from agencies