Natwar wilts under pressure to go

Ruling Congress Party spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters here on Monday midnight that Natwar Singh spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was in Moscow, over telephone and conveyed to him his decision to quit.

Natwar Singh told the prime minister that he would hand over his resignation to him on Wednesday upon return from official visit to Russia, Sharma said.

After the telephonic conversation with the prime minister, Natwar Singh met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for an hour at her residence during which the former foreign minister apprised her of his discussion with Manmohan Singh, said the Congress spokesman.

Natwar Singh's decision to step down came a day after he had firmly ruled out his resignation contending such a step would look to many an "admission of guilt" and the opposition demand would not stop with his exit from the ministry.

His decision also came a day after Congress Party removed Natwar Singh from its top decision-making forumthe Steering Committee.

According to Sharma, Natwar Singh told Sonia Gandhi Monday night that he was resigning to "save" Congress and the government led by the party from further embarrassment.

The former external affairs minister, named by a UN committee of former US Federal Reserve head Paul Volcker as a non-contractual beneficiary of oil-for-food programme in Iraq in 2001, had been steadfastly refusing to quit despite growing indications that the Congress leadership wanted him to go.