New Delhi, July 25: After showing signs of resolution, the issue of opposition boycott of Defence Minister George Fernandes took a new turn today with the government rejecting Congress' demand for a discussion in both houses of Parliament, a condition for an end to the 18-month impasse. "If the Congress' official position is to have a discussion in both houses, we will not have it in either house," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told reporters, a day after a patch-up between the two sides that would have ensued a debate on Tehelka in Rajya Sabha on Monday ending the boycott.

Swaraj's comments came minutes after Congress spokesman Satyabrata Chaturvedi declared that the party would insist on a debate in both the houses for ending the stalemate.

Accusing the main opposition party of "backing out" of an "agreement", she said the question of compromise did not arise as the offer for a discussion in Rajya Sabha was made by the Congress. She asserted that discussing it in the upper house was not the government's "brainwave" but was decided mutually during discussions with party leaders of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Bureau Report