Jamnagar: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on December 7 attacked Congress president Sonia Gandhi for her recent remarks about his knees and charged the Congress with arriving at agreements with Pakistan after giving up claims over Indian territory.

"When Congress was in power, it made pacts with Pakistan after giving up claims over our territory," he told an election meeting here on the first leg of his campaign in Gujarat.

Virtually ruling out talks with Pakistan till it stops sponsoring cross-border terrorism, he said, ''What can we talk. When we were talking in Lahore, they were hatching a conspiracy to attack India and stabbed us in the back."

Asking Gandhi to "stop worrying about his knees and instead concentrate on what is happening in Congress-ruled states", Vajpayee said, "She will know how strong are my knees when the Lok Sabha elections come in 2004."

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who also addressed the meeting, hit out at Gandhi for referring to the Prime Minister's knees and said she was not even born when Vajpayee had dedicated his life to India.

The Prime Minister regretted that politics was being indulged in on Cauvery water issue and said his government has decided to link all major rivers as a permanent solution to recurring drought and flood.

PTI