While Prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said in Mumbai that the government could consider safe passage if the infiltrators asked for it, home minister L K Advani told reporters in Panaji that he had "no information" on the issue.

Speaking to the media in the morning, Vajpayee said "if the infiltrators ask for safe passage to withdraw, the matter will be considered".

The confusion was compounded by a late night agency report quoting sources close to the PMO that the question of offering safe passage to the intruders is "premature as the stage of offering safe passage had not come".

The contradictions within the government was also evident from Advani holding Pakistani premier NawazSharief responsible for the intrusion in Kargil. Referring to a statement by Fernandes absolving Sharief of responsibility, Advani said what the defence minister meant was that the Pakistani PM was "not fully posted" of the developments by the Pakistani Army.

Meanwhile, three top ranking retired military officers, including a former air chief has termed as "ridiculous" the government's willingness to consider a safe passage for the trapped infiltrators.

"The proposal is absolutely ridiculous. You cannot just allow them to go like that. We paid a price. We shed our blood," a visibly agitated former chief of air staff, Air Chief Marshal S K Mehra said at a panel discussion on Kargil operations organised by the Indian Women's Press Corps here.

The proposal showed "complete misunderstanding of what our objectives are. You cannot fritter away the gains made by our men at the cost of lives, limbs and hardware over dinner, diplomacy and kabab," they said.