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The Centre is “determined” to go ahead with the nuclear deal, a government source said a day after both sides had stood firm at the UPA-Left panel.

“We are determined to go ahead with the nuclear deal,” the source said today.

He added that the India-specific safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could not be separated from the pact with the US.

The Centre had so far been trying to de-link the 123 Agreement with Washington from the safeguards agreement as it sought the Left’s nod to take the next step in the IAEA phase of the deal. But the source today said this had been a suggestion from the government to the Left at the “political level”.

The Left parties too have been saying that the safeguards pact cannot be separated from the 123 Agreement. But the source didn’t agree with the Left view that the deal would be on “auto pilot” after the IAEA stage, with the US helping India get the Nuclear Supply Group’s exemption.

“If we (India) are not interested, the members of the NSG will not be interested in it either. We have been talking to them,” the source said, refusing to set a timetable for the operationalisation of the deal.