The cabinet cleared the twin bills -- Prevention of Money Laundering and Foreign Exchange Management (Fema), even as a decision on a Patent Bill in tune with World Trade Organisation agreement was deferred.

The Cabinet also cleared the new housing policy. The government, it may be noted, had promised in its national agenda for governance to come out with a new housing policy aiming at providing two million houses per year.

"We are hopeful of introducing the twin bills in the current session of parliament," parliamentary affairs minister Madan Lal khurana told newspersons immediately after a two-and-a-half hour meeting late this evening. The cabinet also decided to recommend extension of the current session of Parliament till August 4.

Finance ministerYashwant Sinha told reporters after a cabinet meeting here that the twin legislations to prevent money laundering overseas and liberalise the foreign exchange regime had been approved by the cabinet.

Khurana said a Bill on extradition of foreigners without valid documents will also be tabled in this session. Khurana said that the extension of parliament session was mainly to enable discussion on the final report of the Jain Commission and the action taken report, which are to be tabled on July 30. Khurana said the government will recommend to Lok Sabha speaker and Rajya Sabha chairman the extension of the session. Already the business advisory committee of the Lok Sabha has agreed for extension of the house by a day upto July 30.

Fema will replace the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act in keeping with the new liberalised economic order in the country. Trade and industry had been demanding scrapping of the "draconian" Fera saying that it had outlived its utility in the changed economic scenario.

The MoneyLaundering Bill is aimed at preventing any laundering of the proceeds from crime and drugs trafficking overseas and is in keeping with finance minister's budget announcement speech that the government would soon come out with twin bills.

Commerce minister Hegde said the cabinet had deferred introduction of the Patent Bill in the current session of Parliament for want of "national consensus". The cabinet however did not take up the much-awaited buyback of shares by corporates.

Hence, the fate of the Companies Bill which is currently pending in the Rajya Sabha is not known. The bill was not on the tentative agenda for the budget session. The logic being given is that the Companies Bill will not be pursued as it was presented by the UF government. In order to introduce buy back, the government would withdraw the bill from Rajya Sabha and introduce appropriate amendments in the existing Companies Act.

The government would discuss the provisions of the proposed Patent Bill with opposition parties beforeintroducing it in parliament. India is committed to changing its existing patent laws as a party to the WTO agreement on patents. It has time till 2005 to switch over to the new patents regime but in the transitions period it is required to provide a mail box arrangement to receive applications for patents of products.