Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's government ran into heavy flak in parliament where the entire opposition attacked him for turning a blind eye to the war that has likely killed and maimed thousands of Iraqi civilians.

Speaker Manohar Joshi briefly adjourned the 545-seat lower house, just after it opened following a month's holiday and announced that all party leaders would meet at 5:00 pm (11.30 GMT) to iron out differences.

However, political leaders failed to hammer out a statement that was acceptable to all.

"We have not reached any unanimity today as some parties wanted the word 'condemned' included in the government's denunciation of the war, while ruling party members argued it should be a more neutral deploring," Manohar Joshi said.

The opposition turned the heat as soon as parliament resumed, calling for a full debate on the stand of Vajpayee's BJP-led ruling coalition on the war before taking up any other business.

"The prime minister just before (the) war began said he would condemn it when it happens and now people are dying in this brutal aggression, but Mr. Vajpayee is mum," an MP screamed amid the din in the House.

The demands from MPs ranged from declaring US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair "war criminals," a nationwide boycott of American products and a full-scale meeting of Non-Aligned Movement members.

Respected Communist Party leader Somnath Chatterjee said the choice of words to condemn the war carried great significance.

"We are the (world's) largest democracy and we have been watching naked aggression for the past 19 days in Iraq and to say just that we deplore the war is not enough...," Chatterjee said.

At one point the BJP too sided with the opposition with their senior MPs attacking the US and Britain for the strikes in Iraq.

"This barbaric war cannot be condemned enough. Entire India is united on this issue. Let us not play politics with the dead children of Iraq," said Vijay Kumar Malhotra of the BJP silencing his party colleagues.

SPACE.WIRE