Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who was returned to power at the head of a hydra-headed coalition in October after mid-term elections, made it clear ahead of a crucial parliament sitting that he was determined to ditch old economic habits.

"Our immediate priority is to provide an impetus to economic reforms, generate employment opportunities and concentrate on the social sector..." Vajpayee said.

Facing the first serious test of its promise to implement asecond generation of economic reform, the seven-week-old government peppered its agenda for the 19-day winter session of parliament with controversial legislation. This included the bill to open the insurance sector to private and foreign players, which has come to be seen by investors as a litmus test of successive governments'resolve to widen the scope of liberalisation that started in 1991.

The Government-Congress clash over Bofors in the Lok Sabha on Monday, however, seemed to cast its shadow over the passage of insurance and other economic bills in parliament.

Congress spokeman Ajit Jogi said the party will ascertain the views of its MPs all over again in its parliamentary party meetings to be held in the next two days, Jogi said. However, "there is no link between the Congress insistence on deletion of Rajiv Gandhi's name from the Bofors FIR and the party's support to economic bills," Jogi added. That the Congress party was in principle in agreement on the insurance bill became more or less evident at a meeting of the parliamentary committee for legislative affairs late Monday afternoon. All the Congress representatives, including senior party leader P Shiv Shanker and Shivraj Patil, reportedly spoke in favour of passing the IRA and other economic bills.

The Vajpayee government was, however, forced to beat a hastyretreat over the IRDA bill, deferring its discussion and passage in the Lok Sabha on Monday even though it was listed in the day's business in the Lower House.

Apart from the Congress stand on Bofors FIR, what ostensibly pinned down the Government was a vociferous protest walk-out in both houses of parliament by the Left party MPs, who were also supported by their colleagues in the RJD and the AIADMK. The Government also had to contend with a massive rally of the insurance and bank workers who were demanding immediate withdrawal of the bill as it was not in the country's interest.