New Delhi (PTI): Left parties made a scathing attack on the Government over the purchase of a "vintage" US warship in the wake of severe censure of the Indian Navy by the CAG for buying the 36-year-old USS Trenton.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) said defence requirements of the country have been undermined by the purchase.

Supporting him, CPI-M leader Basudeb Acharia demanded a probe into the purchase. He wanted a statement from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Dasgupta said it was strange that the warship which was to be abandoned by the US Navy in 2006 was bought for over 50 million US dollars without any physical assessment.

Noting that an amount of 36.94 million US dollars was spent on the ship's repairs, he said the entire deal raised very serious questions and the Comptroller and Auditor General had severely indicted the purchase.

Dasgupta said that six Indian sailors on the ship died of a gas leak and such an incident had also occurred earlier when it was part of the U S Navy.

They wondered whether the Government was coming under pressure from the Bush Administration to make such purchases in view of the strategic defence partnership between the two countries.