NEW DELHI: Sonia Gandhi, heir to India's Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, tearfully gave up her chance to become prime minister yesterday to protect her new Congress government from damaging attacks over her Italian birth.

Angry and upset, Congress lawmakers mobbed Gandhi and begged her to change her decision, which paves the way for the architect of the country's modern economic reforms, Manmohan Singh, to take over.

"I must humbly decline this post," she told a chaotic party meeting in parliament's timber-pannelled central hall, lined with life-sized portraits of former prime ministers, including her husband, Rajiv, and mother-in-law Indira Gandhi, who were both assassinated.

Some media said Gandhi's politician children, son Rahul and daughter Priyanka, encouraged her to drop out, fearing she would become a target for Hindu extremists.

Fighting to make herself heard above indignant shouts from her supporters, Gandhi pleaded: "I request you to accept my decision and to recognize that I will not reverse it.

"It is my inner voice, my conscience," said the 57-year-old Gandhi, adding she had never sought the top job and did not want her presence to weaken the government.

Gandhi did not publicly name a replacement, but the NDTV network said she was pushing for Singh.

Gandhi and Singh met President Abdul Kalam earlier yesterday, at the invitation of Kalam, to open talks about forming the government. But Kalam failed to name Sonia Gandhi prime minister as usually expected and Gandhi left the ornate, colonial-era building empty handed.

Gandhi said later she would meet Kalam again today.

Outside the supporters had mixed feelings. One man stood on the roof of a car, held a home-made gun to his head and waved a stick to deter people trying to calm him. "Call Sonia Gandhi! Tell her I will kill myself if she doesn't become prime minister!" he said before being disarmed.

Others lay down in the street or torched effigies of Gandhi's Hindu nationalist opponents, who have run a bitter campaign targeting her Italian background.

"Congress has informed us that Mrs Gandhi will no longer be leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party, and they are meeting to elect a new leader," said Sitaram Yechuri, a leader of the main Communist Party of India (Marxist), which has pledged its support to a Congress coalition government.

Congress lawmakers were due to choose a new leader at a meeting set for 7 pm in parliament's central hall, the same place where they anointed Gandhi PM-elect three days ago.

Her withdrawal, and the prospect of Singh leading Asia's third-largest economy, spurred markets, helping stocks on the Bombay exchange post their second-biggest daily rally.

(HK Edition 05/19/2004 page1)