Congress, Left move to resolve stand-off

 Cutting short her visit to South Africa, Congress President Sonia Gandhi returned here and immediately presided over a meeting of the party core group to discuss the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other top party leaders.

 "We will talk to them (the Left) next week after discussing among ourselves," Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel told reporters after the meeting.

 The CPI(M), the principal party in the Left grouping, showed further signs of softening its attitude by dismissing all talk of any crisis facing the Manmohan Singh government. "I don't see it as a crisis. Where was it and where has it gone?... What we are saying is don't proceed without evaluation," Politburo member Sitaram Yechury told reporters.

 Prior to the core group meeting, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee briefed Gandhi reportedly on the possible options to resolve the impasse triggered by the Left demand that the government should not go ahead with the deal.