External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Defence Minister A K Antony on Friday night briefed Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the situation arising out of the government's standoff with the Left parties on the Indo-US nuclear issue.

During the nearly two-hour meeting that lasted almost till midnight at 10 Janpath, Mukherjee, the government's pointsman on the deal with United Progressive Alliance allies and the Left parties, and Antony apprised Sonia of the talks they had with leaders of the constituents of the ruling alliance and the Communist Party of India-Marxist and CPI in the last two days.

Emerging from the meeting, neither Mukherjee nor Antony spoke to the media.

Through the day on Friday, the government was busy trying to end the faceoff on the nuclear deal, which showed no signs of easing with the Left parties making it clear that they will vote against the government if it takes the next steps.

Ahead of the meeting with Sonia, Mukherjee held late night discussions with CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat and CPI leader D Raja in the company of Antony during which the two Left leaders asked the government not go to the International Atomic Energy Agency for finalising the India-specific safeguards agreement, which they felt amounted to operationalising the nuclear deal.