He, however, refused to disclose what the two ministers had agreed upon."Our views will be put before the cabinet. There can be other views also.

Let us wait and see what the cabinet decides" said Yadav, addressing a press conference in the Capital.

The cabinet committee on disinvestment is expected to discuss AI disinvestment in its meeting scheduled on Friday.

Yadav said that he and Jaitley met four or five times over the AI disinvestment issue and their "excellent personal relations" had helped sort out matters.

When probed on his views on extent of equity offloading in AI in favour of a strategic partner and giving-up management control, Yadav did not prove forthcoming. "This is a sensitive issue and the cabinet will discuss it" he said.

The minister said that the media was free to draw conclusions from his previous utterances on Air India disinvestment at forums such as Ficci..

Yadav, meanwhile, denied all reports of diversion of Indian Airlines flights at his request, hinting at a political campaign to malign him. He also dropped hints that this could be linked to his reported stance on Air India disinvestment.

"You can put two and two together" he quipped, when questioned by reports about a possible agenda behind the news reports which have appeared recently in the media concerning IA diverting scheduled flights to Patna to suit the minister's convenience. He said that he had summoned the press conference to put an end to the reports, which "are damaging not only my image but that of entire civil aviation department".

On the issue of the airlines' fleet expansion, Yadav said that he has written to finance minister Yashwant Sinha to ask for money to fund acquisition of one Boeing jumbo jet by Air India.

"The finance minister felt that AI should start a flight to Frankfurt as this is a very busy route. So I have written to him asking for money for Air India to purchase a new plane" said Yadav. AI will need funds to the tune of Rs 500-Rs 750 crore to fund the aircraft purchase.

Yadav pointed out that several decisions were taken by the civil aviation ministry during his tenure. These include additional capacity of 10 lakh seats and upgradation of six airports to international status.