Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told US President Barack Obama when the latter called on Tuesday morning, that India would play a constructive role at the Copenhagen climate change summit. But PMO sources have said that Singh is unlikely to attend the meet.  

Pressure has been mounting on the Indian PM to commit to attending the summit. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged him to attend when they met him at CHOGM earlier this week.

Back home, the IPCC chairman RK Pachauri has also said that the PM's presence would be a huge boost for the Indian side.  "I think India is at a crossroads, I hope the PM goes to Copenhagen as our environment minister has said that India is a deal maker and not breaker...I don't know what the deal will be, difficult to say...but PM going to Copenhagen is an important development," he said.

The PMO sources, however, said Singh was unlikely to go there as no deal was likely and with Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and the PM's special envoy on climate change Shyam Saran representing India, they said it should be sufficient presence.

During his conversation with the US President, Manmohan Singh said India would play a constructive role in the negotiations at the Copenhagen summit and looked forward to a successful outcome.