Half the night is over, half is left: PM

Officials travelling with the Prime Minister said they spent some time analysing the importance of Vajpaee8217;s words and whether they carried any sense of forboding or admission of his despondency.

The Prime Minister used the media interaction to clarify India8217;s stand on the developments in Sri Lanka. He said there was only one 8216;8216;proposal8217;8217; before the government and that was for allowing LTTE spokesperson Anton Balasingham to come to India for treatment. This, he said, would receive sympathetic consideration.

However, he affirmed that India was not associated with the negotiations between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan Government and that he did not want to 8216;8216;interfere8217;8217; in the matter.

Significantly, the Prime Minister said he would deliberate on the fate of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on his return to New Delhi but would first consult his colleagues.

The agenda for the BJP8217;s Goa meeting included the recent election results which, he said, were not according to the party8217;s expectations. 8216;8216;We will now take a lesson from the election results and try and run the Government and party even

better.8217;8217; He laughed off a pointed question on how the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal were adding to his wories.

8216;8216;This is our problem,8217;8217; he told the 25-strong media delegation on board, 8216;8216;You leave the problem to us.8217;8217;

On the outcome of his Singapore-Cambodia visit, the Prime Minister said after his recent visit to Malasiya, Vietnam and Indonesia, this trip was a further affirmation of India8217;s look-east policy and the importance the country was giving ASEAN.

He recalled that an Indian Prime Minister was in Phnom Penh after a gap of 48 years and was anxious about Cambodia being linked by a direct flight from India and about the tourism potential of the country getting better publicity back home.

An air link connecting Siem Reap 8212; where the famous Angkor Wat temples are located 8212; and Bodh Gaya would, he said, be a very 8216;8216;successful8217;8217; venture.

He pledged that his Government would give as much grant as was needed for the restoration project at the ancient Ta Prohm temples, announced during his trip. 8216;8216;The role that India has played in this area has been welcomed,8217;8217; he noted.

The Prime Minister confirmed that investment and business had made terrorism an important theme of his visit. 8216;8216;In these countries we have been told we should not talk about fundamentalism alone but stress on Islamic fundamentalism.8217;8217; He dwelled at length about the recent arrests of Al Qaida or Jemmah Islamiah operatives in Singapore and what their interrogations revealed.

He informed, 8216;8216;Leaders in Singapore informed me about what the leader of the group Ibrahim Maidin had revealed. The leaders said they had thought terrorism was limited only to the Middle East or in Jammu and Kashmir in India. But they admitted the terrorism net was now speading and we will have to fight it unitedly.8217;8217;