Russia has come out in support of the Indo-US nuclear deal. But it has said that a draft agreement with Moscow could not be signed in view of international laws that Russia recognized. Senior government sources said that the Russians were always aware that fresh projects not covered under past agreements could not be initiated without an exception from the Nuclear Suppliers Group, but some expression of intent that would have indicated the two sides were engaged could have been possible. In a move to reach out to the Left, foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee met CPM boss Prakash Karat earlier this week without much success. At discussions, Karat is understood to have made the point that the Left was agreeable to anything that did not result in the deal being operationalized. The Left simply refused to buy the reasoning that concluding an IAEA safeguards agreement could be delinked from the 123 pact with the US. Though the Bush administration has been stretching the deadline to see whether the Manmohan Singh government could get past the barriers erected by its Left supporters, the window is well and truly narrowing now. US officials have spoken of September being the outer limit to the 123 pact being pushed through Congress. Though he clarified reports that he had said the deal was as good as dead, a former Bush staffer, Ashley Tellis, has indicated that managing the legislative process would be a tall order. Tellis was closely associated with the nuclear deal and is now an adviser for Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Wednesday's parleys might be followed by more meetings but the last-gasp moment could be at hand. National security adviser M K Narayanan's