Mumbai: The Congress-led UPA government seems all set to sign a nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States despite continuing opposition from the Left.

While both prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi have been asserting their views in favour of the Indo-US nuclear deal over the last few days,  RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav also today voiced support for the nuclear deal.

Meanwhile, an important UPA-Left meeting on the issue has been called of Wednesday citing external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee's preoccupation with the visiting Syrian President Assad.

These point towards the government's resolve to go ahead with the controversial deal despite the Left opposition.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh said a formal deal with the US will open up new possibilities of cooperation with major nuclear powers like Russia and France. The PM also said his government aimed to create an international environment suited for promoting peaceful use of nuclear technology.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and external affairs minister Pranab Mukerjee also underlined the need for promoting nuclear co-operation with other countries to serve India's rising energy requirements.

The statements seem to be an orchestrated effort with the definite agenda of going ahead with the Indo-US agreement.

While UPA partners like Sharad Pawar and Lalu Prasad Yadav were earlier against a nuclear deal with the US, they too seems to have veered round to the view that there is no alternative other than signing the deal for ending the country's nuclear apartheid.

Now that the general elections are nearing, the Left may also have to fall in line to avoid a political isolation. They may either keep quiet or not oppose the deal in a very vocal manner.

Marxist leader Prakash Karat yesterday warned the UPA government of make-or-break discussions, putting ice on    the Congress party's renewed efforts to push through the deal.

Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury, meanwhile, said the UPA-Left meeting would consider any proposal by the government though his party was opposed to "signing the IAEA accord."

"Our objection is not with the IAEA. Our objection is with the India-US deal which, according to us, is very deeply anchored" in American domestic law that will impact India's strategic nuclear programme.

The postponement of the UPA-Left coordination committee meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, seems to be a prelude to the two sides preparing for a parting of ways.

''The government should not proceed to seek approval of the text of the India specific safeguards agreement from the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency,'' a statement signed by Prakash Karat (CPI-M), AB Bardhan (CPI), Debabrata Biswas (Forward Bloc), and T J Chandrachoodan (RSP) said.

''The text of the `draft of the safeguards agreement' has not been made available to the committee. As far as the Left parties are concerned, they have not been able to form any opinion on the text of the safeguards agreement,'' they noted.

However, according to a senior prime ministerial aide, the Left had never formally asked that it be shown the ''frozen text.''

If the Left opts to withdraw support to the minority government the the government falls, a November-December 2008 general election is almost guaranteed.