"It could have made a difference if the decision to place onion under open general license (OGL) with zero import duty coupled with arrangements for speedy imports, had been taken somewhat earlier," Vajpayee told a chief ministers' conference here to review the price situation.

Pointing out that there had been large regional variations in the price rise, he said onion prices in Delhi and some other cities registered much sharper increases than cities in the south.

"The main reason for the recent spurt in prices was the weather. Agricultural crops, particularly of onions, potatoes, edible oilseeds and pulses, have been hit by bad weather... This was worsened by some of the long-term infirmities in production, supply and distribution chains," Vajpayee said.

Due to low unit price ofagriculture products even a small shortfall in supplies caused large price fluctuations and market structure responded to it in a manner detrimental to consumers' interest, he added.

Stating that steep rise in prices of essential commodities had affected all sections of the society, particularly poor and the middle class, Vajpayee said the issue could not be isolated from problems in agriculture, agriculture markets, consumer markets and administration.

"Rising prices is a national problem. It needs to be tackled by both the centre and state governments -- separately as well as jointly," he said.

Stressing the need for increasing production of all essential commodities, the prime minister said in the case of pulses especially the per capita availability had declined from 69 grams per day in 1961 to 35 grams per day in 1998 and it was a warning signal.

Similarly, annual demand for vegetables and fruits was increasing by over five per cent from three per cent a few years ago.

Consumption of edibleoil, including vanaspati, had increased to seven kg per person in 1995-96 from 3.8 kg per person in 1980-81, he said, adding at the same time production of oilseeds had declined to 222 lakh tonnes during 1997-98 from 250 lakh tonnes in 1996-97.

A solution to problem of largescale wastage of agricultural produce brooked no delay, he added.