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NEW DELHI : India's prime minister has dared communist allies to withdraw their support for the ruling Congress-led coalition if they are unhappy with a landmark Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh insisted in an interview with the Calcutta-based Telegraph newspaper published on Saturday that the technology pact, seen as a centrepiece of new, warmer US ties, would not be renegotiated.

"... it is not possible to renegotiate the deal. It is an honourable deal, the cabinet has approved it, we cannot go back on it," he was quoted as saying.

"I (have) told them to do whatever they want to do, if they want to withdraw support (for the Congress coalition government), so be it," Singh said.

The communists, who prop up the ruling coalition, have rejected the deal as bringing New Delhi too close to the US and jeopardising India's strategic sovereignty.

Later in the day, Singh sought to smooth over differences over the deal with the communists and dismissed chances the dispute might trigger a snap election.

"All these problems can be resolved and will be resolved amicably," Singh, who is due to defend the deal in parliament on Monday, told reporters.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), the biggest in the four-party Left bloc, had said in response to Singh's published remarks that the premier must realise the deal "is not acceptable to the majority in parliament."

The accord, which seeks to bring India into the loop of global atomic commerce after a three-decade gap, and give its burgeoning economy greater access to nuclear energy, has also been rejected by the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"We do not share the optimism that India can become a great power with the help of the United States," Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Prakash Karat said in a statement.

India is a country with enough resources and self-confidence to carve out its own development path, he added.

"As far as the approach to the government is concerned, we will take our own counsel," said Karat.

But in a sign that the communists wished to avoid a showdown, Karat did not repeat an earlier warning that the government would "have to pay a heavy political price" for the deal.

Another senior communist member, Sitaram Yechury, attending a party meeting in the southern city of Hyderabad, downplayed Singh's challenge to withdraw support, according to the Press Trust of India.

"Why should everything be linked to pulling down the government? It will not serve any purpose," said Yechury.

Analysts said there was scant likelihood the Left would withdraw its support for the government and make it easier for the Hindu nationalist BJP to come back to power.

"There's not a snowball's chance in hell that they will withdraw support, they have no desire to pave the way for a return of the BJP," said veteran columnist Prem Shankar Jha.

"The left is posturing for its own members, they have elections coming up in Kerala and West Bengal. They have retained the right to criticise -- that's why they haven't formally joined the government," Jha said.

The nuclear agreement, clinched in Washington last month, has won universal praise from India's defence scientists who say national strategic interests have been safeguarded.

The pact allows India to buy civilian nuclear technology while possessing nuclear weapons despite not adhering to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The communists say, however, that the deal would make India a strategic ally of the US, which would be "detrimental to the country."

- AFP /ls