New Delhi, Mar 16: The crucial meeting of the UPA-Left committee on the Indo-US nuclear deal will be held here on Monday where the government is expected to hand over the Left leaders copies of the draft India-specific safeguards agreement it has reached with the IAEA.

Government is also likely to brief them on the over three-month long negotiations it held with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the safeguards agreement. The meeting comes in the backdrop of major Left parties asserting that they would withdraw support to the Congress-led government if it went ahead with the nuclear deal with the US.

However, the Left parties have been saying that they would not be responsible if the government falls. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads the committee, exuded confidence that the government would be able to convince the Left parties.

"I am hopeful of sorting out the issue (with the Left)," Mukherjee had said. CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said that the Left parties were totally opposed to the deal as it was "anchored in the Hyde Act" which had conditions that were against the interests of India. "The government will have to move forward only on the basis of the findings of this committee. If the committee says that the deal is wrong, then it should be dropped," he told news Agencies.

The government is expected to present the draft safeguards agreement finalised with the IAEA for endorsement of the panel. The CPI(M) General Secretary, Prakash Karat, has said that the UPA government will last its full term and the Left parties will not be responsible if it falls. "It (government) will last its full term.

If the government falls, it won't be because of us," said Karat, whose party along with their allies give the crucial outside support to the UPA government. Karat said the Left parties had given the go-ahead to the government to hold talks with the IAEA as it had agreed to bring the draft safeguards agreement to the UPA-Left panel on the nuclear deal.

The CPI has indicated that in the event of the Left withdrawing support to the UPA government over the Indo-US nuclear deal, the outside supporters would not bring it down. Government has been holding a series of meetings for an internal review of the safeguards agreement and is also expected to hand over assessment by scientists to the Left leaders. The Atomic Energy Commission, headed by Chairman Anil Kakodkar, also met last week to discuss the safeguards agreement.