Natwar seeks appointment with PM

Suspended Congress leader and former external affairs minister K Natwar Singh on Thursday sought an appointment with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The move comes close on the heels of Natwar's privilege motion against the prime minister being rejected in Rajya Sabha.

Congress sources said Natwar Singh wanted to meet Dr Singh to express regret over some of the comments he had made.

The former external affairs minister had told a television channel on Wednesday night that he had no intention of hurting Dr Singh.

A Union minister is understood to have told Natwar that since he had chosen to denigrate the prime minister in public, he has to express regret in public before trying to meet Dr Singh.

According to sources, a senior Samajwadi Party leader met Natwar on Wednesday night and told him that a wrong impression was gaining ground that the former minister was being used to target the prime minister and this should be set right.

Natwar, suspended from the primary membership of the Congress, was served a show cause notice on Wednesday. He was asked why he should not be expelled from the party.

Natwar and his son Jagat Singh were named in a United Nations probe into the corrupt oil-for-food programme.

The Paul Volcker Report made public a list of corporations and politicians across the world who benefited from an elaborate scam devised by now deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Last week, Justice RS Pathak, who probed the Indian angle in the scam, indicted Natwar and Jagat.