Thursday, February 23 2006 16:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: CPI today (Feb 23 2006) threatened to bring a privilege motion against Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed for seeking to 'mislead' Parliament on whether the US had sought to dissuade India from investing in a Syrian oilfield.

"We will move a privilege motion against the Minister who has misled Parliament in reply to a question in this regard," CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta told sources here.

He said Ahamed had replied in the negative to a question whether the US had asked the government not to invest in a Syrian oilfield in partnership with China.

"There is a memorandum given by the US Embassy in Delhi to the External Affairs Ministry on this issue. We have confirmed information on this. We want the government to officially deny it," Dasgupta said adding that this was yet another instance of American "pressure" working on the UPA government.