An announcement to this effect was made by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the NDA meeting on Sunday on the eve of Parliament session, NDA convenor and defence minister George Fernandes told mediapersons after the meeting.

Petroleum minister Ram Naik would make a statement in the House on Tuesday on `some' reduction in prices, Mr Fernandes said without specifying the quantum of reduction. He, however, said "it was public knowledge" when newspersons asked whether they were being reduced by Rs 10 and Re 1 in case of LPG and kerosene, respectively.

The reduction, he said, would cost the exchequer Rs 139 crore per annum. Asked when the new prices would come into effect, Mr Fernandes said "the point has not been firmly decided as yet."

The government, it may be mentioned, was under constant pressure from Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee and some other NDA allies that the hike in prices of petroleum products be rolled back.

Ms Banerjee had even threatened to quit the government on the issue and had to be persuaded by the Prime Minister not to do so assuring her that the demand would be considered.

Responding to a query that would the quantum of reduction satisfy Ms Banerjee as she had demanded total rollback of the hike, Mr Fernandes said "She is aware of the size of the problem" adding that prices of crude had gone up from $30 to $35 since the hike was announced.

Mr Fernandes said the meeting also briefly discussed the question of reduction of Government equity in public sector banks. In view of apprehensions in certain quarters and the employees strike last week, he said it had to be clarified that "we are not privatising the banks."

The government would reduce its equity to 33 per cent not by offloading but by increasing the equity base. No one would be allowed to hold more than 1 per cent equity, he said adding that banks were not corporate bodies under the Companies Act and directly owned by the government. As it is, the State Bank of India, in which the government equity was not being diluted, accounts for 50 per cent of the total banking operations.

The meeting also discussed the issues that the government was keen to bring in the house in the session, he said which inlcuded agricultural prices along with the agricultural policyb adopted by the Cabinet recently.

There would be a discussion on international situation and the Kargil report which was placed in the house in the last session but could not come up for discussion, Mr Fernanded said.

Those who attended the meeting included Ms Mamata banerjee, Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar, Akali Dal leader Parkash Singh Badal, Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi, JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav, DMK leader T R Balu and Mr Sukh Ram, Mr L K Advani and BJP President Bangaru Laxman.