Earlier in the day Jayalalitha held lengthy talks with two Union ministers and a prominent member of the newly-formed Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha, which has vowed to bring down the government.

While senior AIADMK leaders, including Nedunchezhiyan, deputy general secretary K Kalimuthu and Union law minister Thambidurai maintained that dismissal of the DMK government in Tamil Nadu was still on the party's agenda and that it would continue to press for its dismissal, defence minister George Fernandes, emerging from a two-hour meeting with Jayalalitha, said: "I don't think dismissal of the DMK government is on anybody's agenda."

Fernandes saidhe was carrying a good message to Delhi but declined to say whether he was confident of the AIADMK's continued support even if the DMK government was not dismissed.

"You must ask these questions to her (Jayalalitha)," he added. Union minister of state for coal Dilip Ray, who also called on Jayalalitha, declined to speak to reporters. Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party welcomed Jayalalitha's decision to continue extending support to the BJP-led coalition government and said it should put to rest all speculation.

The decision to continue support to the BJP-led government was taken at this morning's meeting of AIADMK MPs at Chennai. BJP general-secretary M Venkaiah Naidu reiterated in Delhi the BJP's appeal to all its coalition partners - to discuss all problems at the coordination committee meeting only. "If the problems are so important that they cannot wait till the coordination committee meeting is held, they can take it up with the prime minister AB Vajpayee, who is the chairman of the coordinationcommittee," he said.

All coalition partners should understand that any airing of grievances in public will be construed as that all is not well among the coalition partners and the opposition will try to exploit it. There was no difference among the partners of the government in the past three-and-half months, he pointed out. Former Union minister Sedapatti R Muthiah was unanimously elected as the AIADMK parliamentary party leader.

A decision to this effect was taken at the meeting the party MPs had with AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha at her Poes Garden residence in Chennai on Saturday. She said V Sathiyamurthy was appointed deputy leader of the parliamentary party and Edapadi K Palanisamy the treasurer.

Muthiah would also be the AIADMK leader in the Lok Sabha, while Sathiyamurthy and Dindigul R Srinivasan were appointed deputy leaders.