The demand for a parliamentary delegation to be sent from Tamil Nadu to visit the ``Tamil homeland'' in Sri Lanka to assess the situation came at a breakfast meeting the AIADMK and its allies had with Prime Minister A B Vajpayee today.

Leaders and MPs of the AIADMK, MDMK, PMK, TRC and Janata Party handed over a memorandum to Vajpayee urging him to persuade the Sri Lankan government to withdraw its armed forces from the Tamil homeland and immediately halt the military offensive now under way. The first signature on the memorandum is that of Jayalalitha.

Among those who present at the meeting were S Muthaiah (AIADMK), Ramadoss (PMK), Subramanian Swamy (Janata Party) and Vaiko (MDMK). The two AIADMK Union ministersThambidurai and M R Janarthanan were also present.

The leaders told the Prime Minister that it would be difficult for the AIADMK and allies to continue supporting the BJP-led government if their demand for the DMK government's dismissal was not conceded. Claiming that agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence were being given a safe haven in Tamil Nadu, they alleged the complicity of Karunanidhi's son in this. Vajpayee is believed to have patiently heard them but did not commit himself either way to their demand.

Though the AIADMK again staged a walkout in both Houses of Parliament later in the day, party sources indicated that it had given Vajpayee some more time to act on its demand.

But it would continue to keep up the pressure with the possibility of another delegation of the AIADMK and its allies meeting the Prime Minister some time again this month.

According to Ramadoss, this was the first time in the last seven years that a high-level delegation from Tamil Nadu was taking up the LankanTamils issue with the Centre.

The PMK leader said that a thorough review of India's relations with Sri Lanka was necessary. The passive attitude adopted by successive governments towards Sri Lanka had not helped resolve the ethnic problem in that country, he added.

Asked if he felt that the DMK was supporting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, he said he did not think so.

In the memorandum, the AIADMK and its allies also wanted the Indian government to impress upon the Sri Lankan regime that the Tamil homeland comprising the merged North and East Province was a contiguous geographic and political entity. They also wanted the Vajpayee government to initiate a process to review the two agreements in respect of Kachativu with a view to restoring India's sovereign rights over the island.