New Delhi, Jan. 5: The UPA government is likely to hold another round of negotiations with the International Atomic Energy Agency for a safeguards agreement before it takes the draft document to the Left for approval.

Sources in the government said an Indian delegation was on its way from Vienna and would brief Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday on the latest round of talks.

The team is expected to return to the Austrian capital in the third or fourth week of January for fresh talks.

The crucial Congress-Left meeting is, therefore, unlikely to take place before the end of January.

Yesterday, external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee had side-stepped queries on a specific timetable for operationalising the deal but had hinted that negotiations with the IAEA on the safeguards treaty would be completed by January-end.

Government sources had earlier said a final draft would be ready by the weekend as they expected the talks to be wrapped up in the third round that took place on Thursday and Friday.

The completion of the safeguards discussions with the atomic watchdog is important for the UPA government, which is doing all it can to satisfy its international interlocutors.

However, the fate of the agreement remains uncertain in the face of the Left’s reservations. Senior government representatives, therefore, feel a delay could help before the deal is put before the Left.

If the Left clears the draft agreement, it will go to the IAEA’s board of governors for approval.

International cooperation in nuclear commerce is possible only after safeguards are finalised with the IAEA followed by a “clean” and “unconditional” waiver from the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group and the US Congress’s nod.

On the political plane, the Congress is getting increasingly anxious over the fate of the deal, particularly after the Gujarat debacle.

Officially, the party denies any link between the poll outcome and the deal. However, privately, party leaders fear that if the Left opposes the deal, the Congress would be caught in a bind as the Prime Minister’s personal prestige is involved in seeing it through.

Commenting on the UPA’s predicament, the CPM’s Sitaram Yechury had recently said: “There are three options before the government. The government stays on and no deal; no government but nuclear deal; and no government and no nuclear deal. It’s up to the government to decide.”