Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday asked prime minister Manmohan Singh to agree to army chief V K Singh's reported "compromise formula" for settling the age issue that he would take premature retirement if the government accepted his true year of birth as 1951.

In a statement in Chennai, Swamy said the only people who were happy with the present controversy were the "enemies" of India, based outside and inside the country, "who are looking forward to depleting the morale of the armed forces and weakening India's military defence".

Gen Singh has moved the supreme court challenging the defence ministry's decision not to accept his position that he was born in 1951.