New Delhi, May 20: The Left parties are expected to step up heat on the government on price rise and the Indo-US nuclear deal issues when they meet here later this week to review the Congress-led coalition's four year performance. The outside supporters of the UPA government have already mounted pressure on the two crucial issues of nuclear deal and the price situation, with CPI warning the government of dire consequences.

The four parties--CPI(M), CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc--are slated to meet here on May 23 to review the government's report card of four years and decide on their course of action if it did not pay heed to their demands. However, Left sources said the meeting on Friday would depend on the health condition of veteran Marxist leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet, who has gone into coma at a hospital near here.

The sources said they would await the fourth year's report card of the UPA before formulating their stand on major issues. The meeting comes in the wake of the CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat observing that prospects of operationalising the nuclear deal as per the American deadline were fading away and a "desperate" attempt was being made to urge the government to go ahead with it ignoring the Left's opposition. The CPI has also renewed its threat to withdraw support if the government moved ahead on the issue, with its General Secretary A B Bardhan saying the government "will have to do it without us."