LONDON, June 11 (Reuters) Britons handed Tony Blair heavy electoral reverses with results today from local polls showing his Labour Party losing support, and Iraq took the blame.
Ministers said the war and ensuing instability had taken a toll, with returns suggesting something close to a drubbing for the prime minister.
Yesterday's polls for local government, the European parliament and London's mayor were the biggest public test for the government outside a general election.
Results for the London and European votes will not land until late Friday and Sunday respectively, but results from local council seats showed Labour shedding support fast.
Some 6,000 seats on 166 councils in England and Wales were up for grabs in the local elections which are staggered over a four-year cycle.
With 72 councils having reported, labour had lost a net 191 seats, closing in on the overall net loss of 400 or more which analysts said would amount to a serious reverse for Blair.
But they cautioned regional and European elections, often used to kick the government of the day, tend to have little bearing on the next general election.
The BBC projected Labour's share of the vote at just 26 per cent, 12 points behind the conservatives and below Britain's third party, the Liberal Democrats, for the first time in living memory.
"An awful night for Labour, really seriously dreadful," said Anthony King, professor of government at Essex University.
"But if the conservatives were on a roll they ought to be at 40 or above." The Conservatives supported war in Iraq.
The Liberal Democrats didn't.
Blair, in power since 1997, was universally predicted to fare badly and fresh speculation about his leadership could now spark into life, although he says he is in no mood to hand over the reins to a party successor.
Most experts still see him winning a third general election, expected in 2005, despite public disquiet over Iraq.
"There is clearly a very strong protest vote," cabinet minister Tessa Jowell told BBC television.
"Iraq is certainly a factor but it is only a factor." Iraq troop deployment India not yet asked for it: Natwar Singh WASHINGTON, June 11 (UNI) India has not yet been approached for deploying troops in Iraq after the unanimous UN resolution endorsing the transfer of sovereignty in that country, external affairs minister Natwar Singh has said.
Talking to reporters after meeting with secretary of state Colin Powell at the state department yesterday, Singh said as far as sending Indian troops was concerned "nobody has asked India." "We will look at the UN resolution very minutely and take a decision when the time comes," he added.
The minister acknowledged that the "situation had changed" since the time Congress party opposed sending troops to Iraq with the unanimous passage of the UN resolution with support from Arab members.
However, Singh, who is in Washington to represent India at the funeral of former president Ronald Reagan, made it clear that in a coalition government the matter will have to be discussed by the government and the Cabinet Committee on Security before reaching any decision.
It would be premature for him to provide a definitive answer, he said, because "this matter sending troops will have to be placed before the government at the highest levels." Saying he had a "delightful" and "good first meeting" with the secretary of state, Singh added that the two discussed the full range of bilateral and regional issues.
"But the most important issue we touched upon was the fact that the United States and India have a very good, strong relationship right now and we intend not only to keep it strong but to build on that relationship to move forward." There has been a broad consensus on India's foreign policy and barring "one or two areas" there was broad agreement between the two leaders, Singh said.
Pakistanis arrested with fake Indian notes KATHMANDU, June 10 (UNI) Police arrested four persons including two Pakistani nationals with fake Indian currency worth Rs 04 million and Nepali currency Rs 0.3 million, media reports said here today.
The arrested are Mahammad Ejaj Hussain and Mahammad Rasid both from Pakistan and Samjan Haluwai and Jaya Prakash Adhikari of Nepal, the Himalayan Times english daily yesterday said quoting police officials as saying.
They were arrested from a hotel in Kathmandu and they have admitted their crime to the police.
They said that they were printing fake currency and exchanging it in Mumbai and Kathmandu, the paper said.
The fake currency is thick, stiff and of inferior quality and its colour is faded, the paper writes quoting police official as saying.
"The special police team confiscated Rs.
1.7 million and Rs.
91,000 Indian currency in the current fiscal year," the paper quoted Rajendra Singh Bhandari, superintendent of police as saying.
Chandrika compromises on key LTTE demand for resumption of talks COLOMBO, Jun 11 (UNI) Compromising on a key demand by the LTTE, Sri Lanka president Chandrika Kumaratunga has told the North-East-based parliamentarians of the four-party Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that her government was prepared to resume talks with the LTTE, based on its maiden blueprint for an interim self-rule.
President Kumaratunga, however, made it clear that the discussion on the resolution of the core political issues should begin during the brief period that would need to implement the written agreement to be reached to institutionalise the proposed interim administration in the war-ravaged North-East region.
"The president told us last night that she is prepared to resume direct talks with the LTTE based on its proposals for an Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) in a bid to instutionalise it.
She said that once the agreement is reached on the establishment of the ISGA, it will take at least three to six months to implement it.
She insisted that the discussions on the core political issues should begin during this brief period," TNA convener and Jaffna district parliamentarian Suresh K Premachandran told UNI.
After a 30-month long gap, twenty of the 22 TNA parliamentarians met the president on her invitation for a dinner meeting last night and discussed latest political developments in the country, including the situation in the Eastern province after the internal revolt in the LTTE and the controversial civilian resettlement in the High Security Zones (HSZs) in the Jaffna peninsula.
Describing the meeting, that ended shortly after midnight, as "open and constructive," Premachandran said that president Kumaratunga appears to have pragmatically compromised on key demands of the LTTE and was intending to resume the talks by August.
According to the Jaffna parliamentarian, the president has already conveyed this message to the LTTE officially through the Norwegian facilitators and has attributed the delay in the resumption of talks to the preparation of a document required by Norway in this connection.
Also present at the dinner meeting were ministers Susil Premajayanth, Mangala Samaraweera and Nimal Sripala De Silva.
The notable absentee on the government side was foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.
"Question to be placed at the highest levels" WASHINGTON, Jun 11 (UNI) The question of sending Indian troops to Iraq will have to be placed before the government at the highest levels , external affairs minister K Natwar Singh has said even as he acknowledged that the situation has changed after the unanimous passage of a resolution by the United Nations Security Council to formally end the occupation of embattled nation on June 30.
Talking to reporters after his meeting with US secretary of state Colin Powell at the state department here yesterday, he pointed out that a coalition government was now in India.
So the matter will have to be decided by the government and the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).
He was asked if India would consider despatching troops to Iraq under the UN umbrella.
Singh, who is here to represent India at the funeral service of former US president Ronald Reagan, said there was a resolution of the last parliament on this issue in which we had given our opinion that we are against sending troops to Iraq.
Now the situation is changed.
There is a resolution unanimously passed by the UN and there are Arab members in it.
We will look at it very carefully, the minister said.
He, however, emphasised that the matter would have to be placed before the government at the highest levels so it would be premature for me to say yea or nay.
Singh said India had been following the events in Iraq with great interest.
And we are delighted that the US and the UK tabled a resolution in the Security Council, having which has been unanimously adopted.
Welcoming the development, he said India had always been in favour of the UN being involved in a central responsibility in Iraq.
With regard to the question you asked about the Indian troops, nobody has asked us.
We will look at the resolution very minutely.
Welcoming the development, he said India had always been in favour of the UN being involved in a central responsibility in Iraq.
With regard to the question you asked about the Indian troops, nobody has asked us.
We will look at the resolution very minutely.
We are not in the security council.
And we will take a decision when the time comes." Powell said the US was pleased that the Indian government showed such strong support for the UN resolution.
"There are a number of requests out for support to the multinational force effort and we did talk about it," he added.
Singh said he had held a "very frank, wide-ranging, lively and occasionally amusing discussion" with Powell on every single aspect of the bilateral relationship while the US leader said the "the most important issue we touched was the fact that the US and India has a very good, strong relationship right now and we intend to not only keep it strong but to build on that relationship, to move forward." The Indian minister told Powell that there had been a broad national consensus in India on the country's foreign policy.
"That will continue.
And we have hit the road running and I continue to do so," he said.
Singh said his visit came at a time when the two countries were witnessing a period of close engagement in bilateral ties.
"Our relations are expanded in scope and depth and my government is determined to work closely with the US administration to take this partnership forward in all areas." Singh said both India and the USA had commonalities in shaping a democratic and pluralistic world order free ot terrorism.
On infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir from Pakistan, Powell said the rate of intrusion had gone down but the Bush administration continued to express its concern to Islamabad over the terrorist infrastructure that still existed.
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