123 Agreement gets Cabinet nod

A joint meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) and Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, today gave its nod to the 123 Agreement that will operationalise the Indo-US civil nuclear deal.

"All concerns of India have been reflected and adequately addressed in the agreement," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters after the hour-long meeting held at the PM's residence.

Besides Mukherjee, the meeting was attended by Defence Minister A K Antony, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and Surface Transport Minister T R Baalu.

India's concerns during the tough negotiations in Washington led by National Security Adviser M K Narayanan related to the right to test nuclear weapons, guarantees of lifetime fuel supply and the right to reprocess the spent fuel.

Hours after the key meeting of the Cabinet committees, the PM tonight met top Left leaders to allay their concerns on the matter. However, the Left leaders wanted to study the full text of the draft before they could react to it, Left sources said. In the meeting, Left leaders Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, both of CPI(M), A B Bardhan and D Raja, both of CPI, were told by the PM that the government had tried to address the concerns expressed by the Left and other parties in Parliament, sources said.

Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, along with party leaders Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Rajnath Singh and Arun Shourie, is scheduled to meet the PM tomorrow, party sources said.

Mukherjee said the government would make a statement on the agreement on first working day of Parliament. The monsoon session begins on August 10.

He said the text of the 123 Agreement was placed before the members at the Cabinet meeting and "they approved the agreement". It would now be tabled in Parliament. Declining to give details, he said it had been agreed that both countries would make an announcement simultaneously.

The minister said that Narayanan, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar would also hold a joint press meet soon.

"We will be able to discuss the issue with other political parties before the Parliament session," said Mukherjee.