NEW DELHI India's Congress Party said yesterday it would try to form a new government with the help of the outgoing multi-party United Front coalition. The statement came a day after India's Hindu nationalists admitted they did not have a parliamentary majority to set up a stable national administration. Congress chief Sitaram Kesri told Indian President K.R. Narayanan that his 113-year-old party would stake its claim, but only after talking with components of the center-left United Front coalition.

We will stake our claim only after we talk to our allies, namely the United Front, Kesri told reporters after meeting the president. We will talk about our stand only if the other parties agree. We are in the process of forming a government and the picture will emerge only after Monday, Kesri said. The Congress leader's talks with Narayanan will be followed by three United Front leaders who were expected to meet the president separately later Friday. Efforts by the Congress, which won 141 seats in the February-March deadlocked polls, to seek the backing of the United Front (96 seats), have so far failed.

(AFP)