PM, Antony meet amid Army Chief's age row

Against the backdrop of the age controversy of Army Chief VK Singh, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today held a half hour one-to-one meeting with defence minister AK Antony in New Delhi.

Against the backdrop of the age controversy of Army Chief VK Singh, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday held a half hour one-to-one meeting with defence minister AK Antony in New Delhi.

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The Prime Minister and Antony held discussions after the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting got over, fuelling speculation that the row over the army chief's age and his retirement came up for discussion.

The meeting lasted for 30 minutes.

After the CCS ended, home minister P Chidambaram was the first to leave, followed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee after a few minutes.

PM and the defence minister stayed back to hold this separate meeting.

Media reports have claimed that the army chief has threatened to go to court if the defence ministry treats May 10, 1950 as his year of birth instead of his contention that he was born on May 10, 1951.

Defence ministry sources say the age row is settled and the army chief will retire in May this year.

The exercise to choose General VK Singh's successor is also said to be underway with Lieutenant General Bikram Singh being the front runner.

The Cabinet Committee on Security cleared a proposal to procure over 450 air to air missiles from French firm MBDA. The missiles will be equipped on Mirage 2000 aircraft, according to defence ministry sources.