New Delhi: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajayee on September 7 met senior Cabinet colleagues including Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and Defence Minister George Fernandes on controversial disinvestment issues hours ahead of the crucial meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment.

Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, Petroleum Minister Ram Naik and Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie were also present in the informal meeting, the second in the week convened by Vajpayee, for evolving a consensus in the wake of sharp differences within BJP and coalition partners.

No official comment was available on the nearly two-and-a half-hour meeting as all the participants drove away from the Prime Minister's residence.

According to available indication, the discussions mainly centred around the merit of strategic sale of equity in PSUs, particularly the oil companies, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum.

The meeting follows days of consultations by Vajpayee and Advani with various ministers even as BJP came out openly in support of the government's disinvestment programme, which has been bogged down by the open airing of differences on various issues with raging debate on strategic sale versus public offer route.

To complicate the matters for the government, even RSS on September 6 said that government should not privatise strategic oil PSUs and reconsider its policy on majority sale of equity in profitable companies.

PTI