India to hold confidence vote on US nuclear deal

New Delhi: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government announced it will soon hold a parliamentary confidence vote to determine its fate and the future of a controversial nuclear deal with the United States.

The powerful lower house of India's Parliament will meet July 21-22 for the vote, said a statement issued Friday by Indian President Pratibha Patil.

Earlier, Singh met with his coalition partners to assess their strength ahead of the vote, following a withdrawal of support by key communist allies opposed to the nuclear
deal.

"I have no doubt that we shall prove our majority," the Press Trust of India news agency quoted governing Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi saying at the meeting.

Singh's government would have to put off the US deal and face early elections if the confidence vote is defeated. His five-year term ends next May.

The Congress party says it has secured alternative parliamentary support from new allies after the withdrawal of the communist parties, which normally vote with the government.

The communists say the deal would undermine India's weapons programme and give Washington too much influence over Indian foreign policy. The government denies the charges.