New Delhi - The Indian government plans talks Wednesday with a New York auction house that was due to put some artefacts belonging to Indian independence icon Mahatma Gandhi under the hammer.

The proposed auction has raised an outcry in India, and the government has stepped in to try to stop the auction and bring the memorabilia back home.

Antiquorum Auctioneers said in a news release that the items that would be sold as a single lot Thursday included a pocket watch, Gandhi's iconic round-rimmed spectacles, a pair of worn leather sandals, a brass bowl and plate, and letters. It estimated the lot price at 20,000 to 30,000 dollars.

"Interactions have taken place over the past several days between the consulate general of India in New York and Antiquorum Auctioneers, New York, where the items are proposed to be auctioned," an Indian Foreign Ministry statement said.

James Otis, the California-based collector who put the artefacts up for sale, had also agreed to meet India's consul general in New York, the statement added.

The statement mentioned an injunction issued Tuesday by an Indian court against the auction or sale of the items.

The Delhi High Court passed an interim stay on the sale on the basis of a petition filed by the Navjivan Trust, a nongovernmental organization started by Gandhi in 1929.

The petition said the artefacts could not be sold because they belonged to India and had been illegally taken away.

The Indian consulate in New York said in a statement that it had asked the auctioneers to cancel the sale of the items and donate them to the Indian government.

"Since the auctioneers refused to do so, the consulate also conveyed that the government of India was willing to buy the items at reserve price or at a reasonable negotiated price," the statement said.

Otis was quoted by India's IANS news agency as saying that the price offered was too little.

"Indian officials approached me this morning with a generous but small offer that I respectfully declined," he was quoted as saying by telephone Tuesday from his home in Los Angeles.

Otis refused to give details of the offer, saying, "It was financially so small I would not like to repeat it."

But he said he had agreed to meet Indian officials in New York Wednesday. (dpa)