Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh walks past an Indian flag as he leaves after a joint press briefing on the sidelines of the G8 summit.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday he did not think the communist parties’ withdrawing their support threatened his government’s stability.
Singh’s communist allies have withdrawn their support for his four-year-old coalition government to protest the government’s plan to push forward with a controversial nuclear deal with the United States.
“I just learned it (about the withdrawal). But I don’t think it will affect the stability of our government,“ Singh said in Sapporo, where he was meeting the leaders of other big emerging economies on the sidelines of a G8 summit, Reuters reported.
Singh said he would submit an application to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the next international step needed to make the delayed deal operational, as soon as possible.
Prakash Karat, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) chief, announced the decision on Tuesday, AP reported.
The four communist parties that withdrew their support were not part of the coalition, but the government counted on their 59 lawmakers to ensure they won a majority in parliamentary votes.
Analysts say their pulling out of the governing coalition will leave it with 226 members in the 543-seat parliament, a good 46 seats behind the majority mark.
But they say the communists’ decision may not lead to a collapse of the government and early elections.
The nuclear deal has been hailed as the cornerstone of a new strategic relationship between the US and India, but India’s main communist party leaders say it would undermine India’s weapons program and give Washington too much influence over Indian foreign policy.

India is under pressure from Washington to sign the accord before the US presidential elections in November.
Under the terms of the accord, India would get access to US civilian nuclear technology and fuel.
In return, Delhi would open its civilian nuclear facilities to inspection - but its nuclear weapons sites would remain off-limits.
Apart from hurdles faced by Singh at home over the US nuclear deal, India has to first gain approval for a set of nuclear proliferation safeguards from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the global nuclear watchdog, which could meet late this month to consider the issue.
Then, the Asian power, which is not a signatory to the nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), has to win a waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to conduct atomic commerce, according to AFP.
The 45-member group of nuclear technology exporting nations could consider India’s case in September.
The IAEA and NSG approvals are mandatory before the US Congress can debate possibly in September the deal’s operational agreement that was reached about a year ago by the two governments.
“It is certainly possible for the deal to move forward but the delays up until now have made it very unlikely that this Congress will have enough time to approve it,“ said Sharon Squassoni, a specialist in weapons of mass destruction proliferation who once served in government and provided congressional advice.
Although the deal was given overwhelming approval in 2006 by the US House of Representatives and Senate, as a partnership centerpiece for the world’s two biggest democracies, she expects lawmakers now to question “some of the shortcomings from a non proliferation perspective.“
Aside from having general IAEA safeguards, US law also requires India to make “substantial progress towards concluding an additional protocol“ giving enhanced access and information and inspection techniques to the nuclear agency, she said.
“India has not held a single meeting on this additional protocol,“ Squassoni said. “Although it is a voluntary safeguards strengthening measure, many states view it as a new benchmark for nuclear supplies and this, in fact, has been discussed in the NSG.“
“I don’t anticipate anything is going to get to this Congress when it resumes (after the summer break) in September,“ she said.
The New York Times warned against rushing through the deal, saying Bush gave away far too much and got far too little for it.
There was “no promise“ from India to stop producing bomb-making material or not to expand its nuclear arsenal or not to resume nuclear testing, it said in a weekend editorial.
At a minimum, it said, the United States must insist that international suppliers halt nuclear trade if India tested another nuclear weapon, as it last did in 1998.

Greenpeace protesters unrolled a massive image of a target on the Prague skyline on Tuesday ahead of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s arrival to sign the main diplomatic deal over sitting a US anti-missile radar in the country.
“Do not make a target of us,“ proclaimed the banner at Letna hill overlooking the Czech capital at the foot of a giant metronome erected by the artist Vratislav Novak in 1991 following the collapse of the communist regime, AFP reported.
The site previously hosted a giant statue of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin which was finally blown up in 1962.
Rice was due to sign the controversial radar deal at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT) with Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.
Anti-radar actions have stepped up in recent months with a hunger strike by anti-base activists, occupation of the military site earmarked for the radar by Greenpeace members and demonstrations.
Polls regularly show around two-thirds of Czech opposed to hosting the US radar. A survey by the CVVM agency published this month showed 68 percent opposed to the US radar.

The breakaway Georgian republic of Abkhazia has rejected a US proposal to deploy an international police force there, its leader said on Tuesday.
The regional government, which is not internationally recognized, instead pledged to keep Russian peacekeepers on the ground, despite Georgia’s accusations that they are fomenting tensions, AP reported.
The US State Department said on Monday that Abkhazia “urgently“ needs an international police presence in areas where recent bombings killed four people and wounded five. It also called on Abkhazia to resume peace talks with Georgia.
“We are not going to listen to any recommendations from the State Department, which always has a unilaterally pro-Georgian position,“ Abkhazia’s leader Sergei Bagapsh told journalists.
He also refused to resume talks unless Georgia stops what he called “terrorist attacks.“
Russia recently increased its peacekeeper contingent in Abkhazia--a move Georgia claimed was part of a Moscow plan to annex the region. Russia also supports separatists in another breakaway Georgian region, South Ossetia, and most people in both regions carry Russian passports.

A citizens group in San Francisco, known as McConnell, wants to pay an ironic tribute to President George Bush when he leaves office--by naming a sewage plant after him.
The group, calling itself the Presidential Memorial Committee of San Francisco, wants the issue voted on at this November’s election, BBC reported.
“It’s important to remember our leaders in the right historical context,“ said petition organizer Brian McConnell.
The Republican Party thinks the plan stinks and it will fight the measure.
McConnell’s group has submitted more than 12,000 signatures on a petition to the San Francisco Department of Elections.
If at least 7,168 of those signatures are found to be valid, the question of whether to rename Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant after the outgoing president will be added to the ballot papers in November.
“In President Bush’s case, we think that we will be cleaning up a substantial mess for the next 10 or 20 years,“ said McConnell.
“The sewage treatment facility’s job is to clean up a mess, so we think it’s a fitting tribute.“

Austria’s governing coalition collapsed on Monday and a snap election looked set for September after conservatives declared they could no longer work with the Social Democrats of Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer.
Accused of poor leadership and unpopular within his own ranks, Gusenbauer said he would not seek reelection as chancellor and recommended acting party chairman Werner Faymann for the job, a shuffle expected to be approved, AFP reported.
The conservative People’s Party demanded an early election for the sake of “clarity“ in government.
“Enough is enough. Good work in this government is no longer possible,“ party chief Wilhelm Molterer, who is also vice chancellor and finance minister, told a news conference.
“The Social Democrats are without orientation or leadership. We can’t let the Social Democratic crisis become an Austrian crisis.“
Austria’s two major parties have been in a “grand coalition“ since January 2007, after the Social Democrats edged out the incumbent conservatives in the last election. But the government has been hobbled by policy feuds over health, taxes, pensions and schools. “The truth is that the 2006 election result was never really accepted (by the conservatives),“ Gusenbauer told reporters.