New Delhi - The Indian government is taking steps to ensure that Mahatma Gandhi's personal belongings are not auctioned to private bidders in the United States, following an outcry in the country against the sale, media reports said Saturday.

The belongings include Gandhi's metal-rimmed glasses, which he once said gave him "the vision to free India," his sandals and pocket watch.

The effects of the Indian freedom icon are due to go under the hammer at the sale by the Antiquorum Auctioneers in New York on March 4 and 5.

India's Culture Ministry said it will approach the owners of the articles, requesting them not to sell in view of the national honour and public sentiment but offer them to the government first, the NDTV network reported.

Among the owners is the daughter of one of Gandhi's nieces, who authorized a German collector to give them to the auction house.

If the owners do not agree, the government will request the auctioneers to take them off the bidding list and failing this it could ask a US-Indian individual or an association to buy them and donate them to India, the report said.

"Whatever can be done is being done to ensure that the articles are not auctioned ... by involving all concerned stakeholders," Culture Minister Ambika Soni told the PTI news agency.

Indian diplomats in US have also been told to actively pursue the matter, a government official said.

Indian parliamentarians are angry that such an auction is taking place and have said all efforts should be made to retrieve the items.

Residents of Gandhi's hometown of Porbandar in India's western Gujarat state also strongly opposed the sale.

Earlier in 2007, the auctioning of Gandhi's letters in London had to be withdrawn following protests and an appeal by the Indian government.

"It was a national shame that somebody that we refer to as Father of the Nation and his personal belongings are being auctioned off in a foreign land," Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar Gandhi told the CNN-IBN network. "This kind of concern should be for every national heritage."

Culture Ministry officials said a government committee was working on how to reclaim the articles which have an asking price of 42,000 dollars.

The "primary aim" was to acquire the articles so that the government can display them in national museums, they added. (dpa)