Crucial UPA-Left meeting begins

The second meeting of the United Progressive Alliance-Left Committee on the India-United States civil nuclear deal began in New Delhi today even as the Left parties rejected the government's reply to concerns raised by them over the agreement.

Ahead of the meeting, the Left parties rejected the government's response to their objections on the accord, saying they were not convinced with even a "single contention of the government" on the issue.

"Today, we have prepared a sort of reply to their (the government's) reply and we will discuss it on that basis," Communist Party of India leader A B Bardhan said.