New Delhi, Sept. 17: The government today told the Left that US legislation would not govern the agreement to get nuclear fuel to the extent that was suspected and that India had got a better deal than China and Japan.

The government handed over to the Left a 12-page explanation in response to the notes that the Left gave listing its concerns on Friday.

Members of the UPA-Left panel on the 123 deal are scheduled to meet on Wednesday.

The text of the government’s note was not publicly released but a sense of its content was available from Left sources. “We have received the government’s response. We are studying it. We will give our reply to it at the committee meeting on September 19,” CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury told PTI from Mumbai.

But Left leaders are already dismissing the government’s explanation.

They insist that the Hyde Act that enabled the 123 deal for the Bush administration has provisions that may be invoked by future regimes in Washington to deny India access to nuclear fuel and technology.

The government note addresses many key concerns raised by the Left.

First, that the Hyde Act will not determine the execution of the 123 deal and that it cannot be invoked at will by Washington to suspend supplies or impose sanctions.

Second, the 123 guarantees that nuclear fuel supplies will be uninterrupted.

Third — and this in response to questions that the Manmohan Singh government was in a hurry to seal the deal — the Left has been told that India gains more from the US than other countries that have signed the 123 agreements.

It has been pointed out during the debate on the nuclear deal that China took upto 13 years to reach a comparable agreement but the Indian government was rushing to conclude it.

The government has also tried to explain why nuclear energy was important to maintain the economic growth rate. It said, in answer to concerns that nuclear energy was expensive, that the deal will allow India to import nuclear fuel not only from the US but also from other suppliers.

Nuclear energy was viable and its generation would be made sustainable, the government said. Left leaders are likely to meet tomorrow for consultations among themselves and prepare for Wednesday’s meeting.

The UPA and the Left continued to spar over the nuclear deal even as the general council of the International Atomic Energy Agency began meeting in Vienna. Anil Kakodkar is representing India at the meet. He has not said if India-specific safeguards, a condition to conclude the 123 deal, would be discussed during his visit.