New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today (Jun 1, 2004) refused to say whether there would be an expansion of his 67-member council of Ministers in the near future.

"I will not comment on the question of ministry expansion," Singh said when asked about it immediately after the swearing-in ceremony of the new Chief Justice of India at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Singh was sworn in on May 22 as the Prime Minister at the head of a first-ever Congress-led coalition Government that has 28 Cabinet Ministers and 40 Ministers of State, ten of them having independent charge.