Parliament erupted in uproar after the private Aaj Tak television network cited the report of India's Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), which deals with high-level corruption.

The 22-member Parliamentary Affairs Committee (PAC) told the federal house that it was unable to launch its own independent probe as the ministry had declined to hand over the now-leaked CVC report, citing national security.

"In the face of refusal by the ministry of defence in supplying the report, the PAC regrets its inability to give their findings on the defence procurement transactions," the MPs' watchdog said.

It flayed the ministry for handing out classified documents on the controversial purchase of unusable coffins during 1999 to an Indian journalist while denying access to the latest probe to the parliamentary panel.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's government tried to ward off the united opposition's attack by jamming work in parliament's lower house with protests over the "leak" of the report.

Aaj Tak citing the purported report accused unnamed defence ministry officials of accepting bribes, inflating procurement costs of artillery guns, shells and bullet-proof jackets during the conflict four years ago.

India launched a full-scale military offensive to dislodge Pakistan-backed forces holding strategic peaks in the Kargil region of Indian Kashmir, leaving some 1,000 combatants dead on both sides.

Within months of the conflict, national watchdogs dug up a tray of shady arms deals clinched during the Kargil fighting including the import of unusable coffins.

The developments are likely to put Defence Minister George Fernandes in the eye of yet more political turmoil.

Opposition parties have clamped a permanent boycott in parliament of Fernandes involving his party until he is cleared of a financial scandal that erupted two years ago.

The defence minister, the only socialist in Vajpayee's Hindu nationalist-led government, nearly destroyed New Delhi's bilateral ties with Beijing in 1998 by dubbing China as India's enemy number one.

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