"It is difficult to indicate any specific time," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters in Chennai when asked about the fate of the deal in the light of Left parties' resistance.

He said though no timeframe has been specified for the operationalisation of the agreement "we are trying to operationalise it before the end of our government's tenure".

The UPA-Left committee will meet soon to discuss the deal will be meeting soon, Mukherjee said.

There were four stages for operationalisation and the first stage of signing of the agreement was over, he said.

Work on the second stage of arriving at a India-specific agreement by International Atomic Energy Agency was on. "We have to get the approval of IAEA board before proceeding on this," he said.