Monday, August 14 2006 18:21 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh removed K. Natwar Singh as external affairs minister under pressure from the US, says senior National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leader Digvijay Singh.

The Janata Dal-United (JD-U) leader told the BBC Hindi Service that Manmohan Singh had removed Natwar Singh in the same way that British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai had removed their foreign ministers - Jack Straw and Abdullah Abdullah for allegedly criticising US policies.

"It is astonishing that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh chose to remove Natwar Singh from the union cabinet on the basis of the Volcker report, while other ministers facing charges of serious crimes as murder, kidnapping and loot of public exchequer continue in their posts," Digvijay Singh said.

He said he had warned Natwar Singh soon after the Indo-US joint statement of July 18 that he would not remain as foreign minister of the country for long.

"I had said in Rajya Sabha on July 29 last year that Natwar Singh would not continue as foreign minister of the country, if he took an anti-American position," he said.

Prime Minister Singh, he said, did not act against tainted ministers as his government was dependent on those ministers' parties.

"He chose to remove Natwar Singh as it was convenient for him and fitted his agenda. We have not hesitation in saying that the Prime Minister practised politics of convenience in removing Natwar Singh," he said.

A UN report authored by Paul Volcker, the former US Federal Reserve chairman, had named Natwar Singh as a non-contractual beneficiary of Iraq's oil-for-food programme. He was forced to resign from his post following the charge.