Another meeting was likely to be convened soon, the sources said. The earlier meeting, also called by Singh on July 28 to resolve the issue, was put off.

A decision was deferred in view of the model code of conduct being enforced by the Election Commission. Today's meeting was convened to either revise or scrap the floor prices imposed in December last year to protect domestic industry from cheaper imports of steel products, particularly hot-rolled (HR) coils.

This move had created a lot of controversy as steel producers were given a massive support price by the government at the cost of CR producers.

The meeting comes close on the heels of a reportsubmitted by Dr Ashok Lahiri of National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, recommending scrapping of the floor prices in view of the measure being not compliant with World Trade Organisation (WTO) norms.

Government on December 10 last year fixed a floor price of $ 302 per tonne for import of HR coils, $ 317 for HR sheets, $ 392 for cold rolled (CR) coils, $ 720 for tinplates and $ 740 for alloy steel bars and rods.

On December 11, it fixed corresponding floor prices for second and defective imports of steel products.

While the commerce ministry has opposed either scrapping or revising the floor prices, it has yet to take a decision on the Lahiri report.

The issue of floor prices for steel imports is currently being handled by the PMO due to differences between domestic producers and consumers.

The steel floor prices are to be reviewed every quarter based on the global prices for the commodity and the review has been pending since February after the steel ministry sent three proposals to thecommerce ministry.

Lahiri, in his recommendation, said revision in the floor prices should be on existing principle of fixing floor price for seconds and defective at 75 per cent of the corresponding export price of primary steel products from Europe and Japan during the six months preceding the revision.

The floor price was fixed mainly to counter cheaper imports from China, Russia and other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) sources, which were seen hurting the domestic industry badly.

Justifying government's move to fix the floor prices, commerce minister Ramakrishna Hegde had said it was fixed to protect the domestic sector, especially the public sector units (PSUs), which account for 60 per cent of the total steel production in the country.

Earlier, there are also indications that following the meeting the steel and commerce ministry may be asked to settle the matter to be the benefit of main steel producers as well as end-users.

The issue had been hanging fire since the two notificationswere issued by the Director-General of Foreign Trade in December 1998. Sensing that users were up in arms against the steep fall in world steel prices, DGFT acceded to a steel ministry's proposal to reduce the import floor price by about 30 to 40 dollar a tonne.

But the move was dropped and Lahiri of the National Institute of Public Policy was asked to examine the issue and submit its report. Lahiri in his report recommended that the floor price for steel items be scrapped and that on seconds and defectives be revised.

While DGFT saw some merit in the recommendation, commerce minister Ramakrishna Hegde ruled out the scrapping of the floor price. The issue therefore remains deadlocked.