Congress today indicated it favoured doing away with the cap on the number of subsidized cooking gas cylinders to domestic households.

It, however, also underscored the government's compulsion saying it was a "difficult" situation under which the decision to limit the cylinders was taken.

"The Congress party from the very beginning has been of the opinion that the reduction in the number of LPG cylinders may cause hardship to the common man.

"Congress President Sonia Gandhi had written to the Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states to try and raise the number (of subsidized cylinders) for each household from six to to nine", party spokesperson PC Chacko told reporters.

He was replying to a question on whether there is any move for a roll back with regard to the number of the supply of subsidised LPG cylinders per year.

Chacko maintained the party feels that "this was a burden on common man" but hastened to add "we also know that this burden cannot be sustained by the government".

"We are in a difficult situation. The international prices of petroleum products are going up. We have no control over the price of petroleum products. If we can afford subsidy, we are happy to do that. It was the most difficult decision we had to take. ," the Congress spokesperson said.

Claiming the government would like to revise this at the earliest opportunity, Chacko at the same time said "but today our hands are tied, the government is not in a position to do that."

Admitting that the decision to limit supply of subsidised cooking gas (LPG) cylinders to six a year has caused hardships, Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily said in Bangalore that it is for the public sector oil firms to take a call on raising the cap.