Mumbai: The US today said it is not averse to concluding a nuclear deal with a minority government in India, hinting at the possibility of the pact going through even if the Left parties withdraw support to ruling UPA government.

"Our basic government position is that we can sign an agreement with a duly-constituted government, whatever its political status," US assistant secretary of state Richard Boucher said in an interview to 'Outlook' magazine.

"As long as it is duly-constituted government of the country, we can sign a deal with it," Boucher said referring to Mukherjee's comment that a minority government "cannot, need not and should not sign a major agreement."

Boucher, however, did not detail the possibility of signing a deal with a minority or a caretaker government.

"I don't remember it actually coming up at all during my meetings with Indian officials." the US official said, adding, "that's a political judgement that the foreign minister in his political role is going to make. That's not a matter of precedent."

The Congress Party, meanwhile, is expected to seek concessions at a proposed meeting of the UPA-Left panel on the deal on March 17.

The meeting is not likely to be seen as a make or break event, even though Mukherjee can be expected to keep probing to see if he can wriggle out more concessions from the Left as when CPM allowed the UPA government to approach IAEA for discussions on safeguards.

The negotiations, however, are likely to be difficult given the Left's ideological opposition to the pact.