President K R Narayanan is learnt to be seeking opinion on the need to call such a session in the absence of the Lok Sabha. Among others, the President had called former President R Venkataraman a few days ago for consultations. Venkataraman was opposed to the idea, it is learnt.

The Congress raised the demand first, though it has not pressed for it. The Left parties have been pushing for it, and Communist Party of India leaders who called on Narayanan yesterday later claimed that the President favoured the idea.

Government sources said the President had conveyed the Opposition's desire to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee when the PM had called on him some days ago.

On being asked the President's views on the subject, Rashtrapati Bhavan said today though various people had voicedtheir opinion, he had not taken any position so far.

The Government has to recommend a session of the Rajya Sabha; the President cannot do it on his own. The Government feels the Rajya Sabha can be called to discuss Kargil only after the action is over. Government sources said today they expect this to happen by July-end.

The priority at this point, they said, is to flush out intruders. Since all the parties have given the Government their unqualified support on this, a session of the Rajya Sabha at this stage was bound to lead to discordant voices which would be used as propaganda by the adversary in international fora and demoralise the armed forces.

Opposition members argue they are not satisfied with the way the Government has handled the situation and such a session should be called to evolve a national consensus on the issue.

With elections a few months away, the Government does not want to give the Opposition an opportunity to take it to task on issues such as intelligence failure, which isbound to crop up during discussions. The Opposition will also gun for Defence Minsiter George Fernandes. All this will be embarrassing for the ruling alliance.

The BJP, which does not have a majority in the Upper House, is also not confident of getting through an all-party resolution expressing solidarity at the end of the session.

The Opposition is worried that the ruling alliance will hog the credit if the Government gets on top of the situation. It has scored some diplomatic feats in the past few days -- the G-8 resolution, the stand taken by Germany yesterday and Britain today against the violation of the LoC by Pakistan and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh's successful China visit.

They are also unhappy over the fact that they have not been taken into confidence about what is going on. The Prime Minister had called an all-party meeting last month but there has been no follow-up.

Karan Singh had suggested a three day in-camera session when he called on the President yesterday. ButGovernment sources point out that there was nothing to stop members from giving detailed briefings to the media afterwards.