Sunday, November 6 2005 16:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today (Nov 6, 2005) held high-level consultations with Congress President Sonia Gandhi and senior Union Ministers to discuss the fallout of the Volcker Committee report, which has named the party and External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh as beneficiaries of Iraq's oil pay-offs.

The over hour long meeting was attended by Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Law Minister Hans Raj Bhardwaj, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Defence Minsiter Pranab Mukherjee, HRD minister Arjun Singh and Political Secretary to the Congress President Ahmed Patel.

The Prime Minister had yesterday held crucial strategy sessions on how to go about instituting a 'transparent' probe into allegations of Iraqi oil pay-offs as Natwar Singh refused to resign.