According to sources in the North Block, the meeting is essentially driven by the mounting criticism of the Indian Government in the western media for its inability to control the situation though the all-too-familiar reservations about the role of the media is also being expressed.

Union Home Secretary B P Singh made only a general admission: ``It is a fact that the local media in India operates differently from the national media, and the international media functions entirely differently.''

Behind this exercise is also the realisation in the North Block that the Opposition is making political capital out of the situation andthe Government needs to be seen doing something more than sending a ``fact-finding team'' to Gujarat, as it did late last month, if it has to stem the criticism.

It will have to demonstrate, say the sources, that this was in no way a final solution to the problem and that the Centre would make an attempt to find out what exactly went wrong.

For its meeting with the MEA, the Home Ministry is collecting documents from various quarters -- including the Central Intelligence Agencies -- to be used as inputs for the review.

Home Minister L K Advani's declaration last week that the Government would study in detail the increase in the Christian population in the troubled Dangs district in Gujarat during the past decade, and also the related matter of conversions and tribal anger, is hardly the antidote that North Block is looking for.

In fact, officials complain privately that ascertaining the Christian demography in a particular area would not only be a cumbersome exercise but was also fraught with danger.So, no initiative has so far been taken in this direction.

The issue of religious conversions has been a matter of great embarrassment to both the BJP governments at the centre and in the State.