India says not given up on U.S. nuclear deal

NEW DELHI, Jan 4 (Reuters) - India said on Friday that it had not dumped a controversial nuclear deal with the United States, opposed by the Indian government's communist allies, but feared that time was running out to clinch it.

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said New Delhi was still trying to find ways out of the face-off with the left parties, who have threatened to end support if the deal is pursued, but did not indicate how a solution could be found.

"No, I have not given up," he said in an interview to the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency. "We are working on how we can proceed."

"Of course time is running out," said Mukherjee, who heads a joint panel formed to resolve the dispute between the government and the communists.

"But one cannot help it. Either you lose majority, and if a government loses majority nobody is going to have an arrangement with a minority government."

Mukherjee's comments came days after his Congress party lost elections to the opposition Hindu nationalists in the western state of Gujarat and the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, dealing a blow to a section of the government that was hoping a good show in the polls would help push the deal.

The India-U.S. civil nuclear cooperation agreement aims to allow New Delhi to access American nuclear fuel and reactors by overturning a three-decade ban imposed after India conducted a nuclear test while staying out of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

It is seen as the centrepiece of a new, strategic relationship between Washington and New Delhi. The government hopes it will help India meet its soaring energy needs.

But its communist allies have rejected the pact, saying it compromises India's sovereignty and draws it into the geostrategic influence of the United States.