Representatives from the Government will travel to the IOC's headquarters in Lausanne on Friday (June 18) for talks over their controversial proposals to set a time limit on how long senior sports officials can serve in their posts, including the Indian Olympic Association (IOA).

If the matter is not resolved then the situation could be referred to the IOC's ruling Executive Board, who are due to meet in Lausanne next Tuesday and Wednesday (June 22-23) and who have the power to suspend India from international competition, including this year's Summer Youth Olympic Games, the Asian Games and London 2012, even the Commonwealth Games, which New Delhi is due to host later this year.

Joint Secretary Injeti Srinivas is due to represent the Sports Ministry in the meeting which will also feature senior IOC officials as well as Randhir Singh, the secretary general of the IOA and an IOC member, and Husain Al-Musallam, the director general and technical director of the Olympic Council Asia (OCA).

Singh said: "We have been insisting that IOA and Government need to work together but they are hell bent on one thing.

"If the matter is not resolved in Friday's meeting and reaches the IOC Executive Board meeting later this month, any punishment is possible.

"They have been categorically told to keep the guidelines in abeyance.

"If anything untoward happens on Friday, that would jeopardise everything, the Commonwealth Games at home and out participation in events like Asian Games and Youth Olympics."

Singh insisted that if anyone was going to compromise then it needed to be the Government.

He said: "The Ministry has to climb down, there is no way out.

"Going ahead with the brinkmanship would lead to a disaster, which is so easily avoidable.

"They [the Government] don't need to tell us about good governance.

"Good governance has nothing to do with fixing the tenure of the National Sports Federation (NSF) bosses.

"It is all about having good, fair and transparent administration.

"We are in touch with IOC and our constitution is being amended to ensure transparency in finance and team selection, holding proper elections on schedule, having proper athletics and ethics commissions... there is no need for term limitation."

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