Talking to presspersons after participating in the convocation of the national board of examinations here, PMK founder S Ramadoss, said: "Se will definitely not withdraw support and will announce the good news shortly. I am sure our support will continue. We want this government to last long," he said.

To a specific question, Ramadoss, whose party has four MPs in the 27-member front and has a nominee in the union ministry, said: "Yes. I think we have prevailed upon her."

Ramadoss said the Congress was not keen on forming the government, but it was only expecting elections. Earlier in the day, in an informal chat to some pressmen at a party workers' meeting, hehad reportedly said the Congress wanted the AIADMK front to take the blame for forcing an election on the country. "We will not allow such a situation to arise," he had said.

The PMK's position is akin to the stand of MDMK general secretary Vaiko, another AIADMK ally, who also said on Saturday that there was no threat to the government. Ramadoss claimed that over the last few days, the AIADMK front had only been discussing the 'betrayal' of Tamil Nadu's interests in the Cauvery issue, and not the issue of withdrawal of support. He blamed the media for 'magnifying the issue'.

On the merits of the Cauvery accord, hammered out by prime minister AB Vajpayee in consultation with the chief ministers of the four basin states, Ramadoss said the scheme notified by the Centre represented a great loss for Tamil Nadu and a victory for Karnataka.

He claimed that it would only help Karnataka's objective of prolonging the issue, without implementing the directives of the Cauvery tribunal.

The demerits of the schemewould become apparent, once the time for cultivation of 'kuruvai' (short-term paddy crop) came some time in September, he said.

He claimed that the Cauvery river authority proposed in the notified scheme was a meaningless body, as it had no 'authority' in the lexical meaning of the word, but was envisaged as a body that would work on consensus.