Fernandes, whose visit was kept a secret, told reporters at Sonegaon airport that the ministry had issued such instructions to all ordnance factories in May last immediately after the military operation in Pakistan border. The Defence minister took a stock of the situation and expressed satisfaction over the production.

The Defence Minister who earlier admitted there was an intelligence failure in detecting the intrusions in the Kargil sector, said the issue should be discussed only after the military operations were over. ``This is not the time to debate the issue. Now it is the government's top priority to evict the infiltrators,'' he pointed out, adding, that such talk would demoralise the armed forces.

Onthe summoning of the Rajya Sabha session as demanded by the Congress and Left parties, he said the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee had already made his views known and he endorsed them.

Commenting on re-capturing of Tiger Hills, he said the jawans and officers had done a wonderful job.

Asked whether Kargil could become another Siachen, he said `it costs to hold territories. We are maintaining Siachen at a cost of Rs 3.2-crore every day because we want to maintain the security and integrity of the country'.

He said that in the last two years, the defence outlay had gone up in the budget. The Union Finance minister, Yashwant Sinha, has already made it clear that there would be no ceiling whatsoever on defence expenditures.