IANS
 
Kolkata, Oct 19: Veteran Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Jyoti Basu on Friday hailed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for "putting a brake" on the Indo-US nuclear deal, and said the Left parties wanted the central government to last its full term.

"It is a good decision on the part of Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. We want the government to last for another one-and-a-half years and we do not want a mid-term election," Basu told reporters.

He said the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was on the verge of being toppled over due to differences with its Left allies on the nuclear deal.

"There were serious differences on the nuclear deal and the situation had come to such a pass that the UPA government was about to fall. I am happy to know that they are not going to proceed with the deal," he said.

The prime minister said Thursday he has not given up hope of finding a way out of the impasse with the Left on the nuclear deal.

"I have maintained that there are some difficulties. We are a coalition. We have to find a way out. I have not given up hope as yet," the prime minister told reporters on his flight back home from a trip to Africa.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) media department chairperson M Veerappa Moily said the Indo-US nuclear deal was "alive" and was not "under oxygen".