“We have to finalise the India-specific safeguards of the agreement. It will then be placed before the UPA-Left committee and the next course of action will be decided after that,’’ Mukherjee told newsmen here.

He did not, however, specify the date for the committee’s next meeting.

Stating that the committee had decided on November 16 to allow the government to talk to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mukherjee said that since then talks with the IAEA were progressing well.

 He added that while its technical aspects were being looked after by the Atomic Energy Commission, the language was being taken care of by officers of the  Indian Foreign Service.

When asked about reports of CPM general secretary Prakash Karat threatening elections on the issue of the nuke deal, Mukherjee said, “As long as a coalition government runs, there is a threat of mid-term elections.’’

In Raipur on Saturday, the External Affairs minister had brushed aside reports that the Left parties had threatened to pull out from the UPA government if it went ahead with the nuclear deal and that the entire issue was “media creation”. “I spoke to Karat and he denied what had been published in the newspaper,” Mukherjee said on Saturday.

Pointing out that the India-specific clauses were a highly technical matter, he said while its technical aspects were being looked after by the Atomic Energy Commission, the language of it was being taken care of by officers of the  Indian Foreign Service.

Mukherjee said the guideline, which said the group of 45 countries having the technology and expertise could not enter into nuclear trade with any country which had not signed NPT, has to be amended.