P V Narasimha Rao wants answers to a "lot of questions," and he will raise those queries at an appropriate fora if he gets the opportunity, the former prime minister said in New York on Monday.

"All my life I have replied to questions but now I myself want to ask a lot of questions," Rao told journalists when he was confronted by scribes seeking comments on issues relating to India at a reception at the Indian consulate for visiting Indian writers.

However, he did not spell what his questions were nor at which fora he is going to raise them. "I can't share with you the questions, but I am going to raise them as and when there is an opportunity," he said.

Rao, who is believed be in the US for a medical check-up, came to New York from Ohio, where he has been staying with his daughter Saraswati, to take part in the three-day literary conference inaugurated by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee last week.

The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan New York, which organized the conference, invited Rao, a best-selling novelist (The Insider), to address the writers.

He said he was half way though his second novel, the sequel to The Insider. Rao said the book would come out soon but would not divulge its content or focus.

Earlier, in his brief address at the reception for the writers from India that was attended among others by Gulzar, Kamleshwar and Sahitya Akademi Chairman Gopichand Narang, Rao thanked the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan for organizing the literary event. "I do not remember having seen such a galaxy of poets and writers from India under one roof," the former premier said.

He felt it was important that the literature in various Indian languages are brought to the notice of second generation Indian-Americans. "I think the Sahitya Akademi and other literary bodies should make efforts to spread what is being written in different languages to the present generation," Rao said.