Gandhi turns down post of Indian leader

SONIA GANDHI said she would "humbly decline" to be the next prime minister of India, a decision that followed Hindu nationalist outrage over the prospect of a foreign-born woman at the helm of the nation.

Ms Gandhi, an Italian native, said she did not say who she would nominate for the post, but the favourite appeared to be Manmohan Singh, the architect of India's economic liberalisation program during the last Congress-led government from 1991 to 1996.

"The post of prime has not been my aim," Ms Gandhi said over a crowd that yelled at her to take the job. "I was always certain that if ever I found myself in the position I am in today I would follow my inner voice. I humbly decline the post."

Ms Gandhi's Congress party and allies trounced the Hindu-nationalist party of caretaker Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his Democratic National Alliance in national elections that ended last week.

The new Congress lawmakers shouted and pleaded with her to change her mind.

"I request you to accept my decision," she said, adding that she would not reconsider.

"It is my inner voice, my conscience," she said. "My responsibility at this critical time is to provide India with a secular government that is strong and stable."

Members of the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of outgoing Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee have demonstrated against the possibility of a foreign-born prime minister. They had pledged to boycott the swearing-in ceremony of Ms Gandhi if she was named leader.

According to Jyoti Basu, a senior Communist Party of India-Marxist leader and Congress party ally, Ms Gandhi's children did not want her to take the post. He said they had lost their father and didn't want to lose their mother as well.

Ms Gandhi's husband and mother-in-law were past prime ministers who were both assassinated. Rajiv Gandhi was killed by a suicide bomber in 1991 and Indira Gandhi was shot to death by her own bodyguards in 1984.

Ms Gandhi's foreign origins have provoked incendiary comments from her political opponents.

"A foreigner becoming the prime minister of the country will put national security and the country's self-respect in jeopardy," Uma Bharti, a former sports minister in the outgoing government said. All bets have now been placed on Mr Singh as the new Congress candidate for prime minister.