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NEW DELHI, March 7 (AFP) - Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee met Hindu leaders late Thursday to work out a compromise to resolve a long standing row over a disputed religious site in the northern town of Ayodhya.

The meeting was also attended by Home Minister L.K Advani, Defence Minister George Fernandes and members of the radical Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP - World Hindu Council), which has been heading a campaign to build a temple over the ruins of a mosque beginning March 15, in defiance of court orders.

The VHP is reported to have given a written commitment to the prime minister promising to abide by the court verdict on the disputed land in Ayodhya, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

The Shankaracharya of Kanchi, Jayendra Saraswati -- one of India's four Hindu pontiffs -- told Vajpayee the VHP would agree to allow the courts to rule on the ownership of the site, but demanded the government hand over a plot adjacent to the mosque ruins where it could go ahead with its temple construction from June 2.

It is not clear whether the government has agreed to the VHP's demand for the plot of land.

Both Hindus and Muslims claim the site where Hindu zealots pulled down the 16th century Babri mosque in 1992 which triggered widespread Hindu-Muslim riots and left some 2,000 people dead.

Hindus believe Ayodhya is the birthplace of the warrior god Ram and that the Babri mosque had itself been built on the ruins of a Ram temple.

The communal riots in Gujarat, which have claimed 602 lives, were triggered by a Muslim attack on a passenger train on February 27 bringing Hindu activists back from Ayodhya. 

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