Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday spoke to People's Democratic Party patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and sought more time to build consensus over the withdrawal of troops from civilian areas in Jammu and Kashmir.

This prompted the PDP to postpone its crucial political affairs committee meeting that was earlier scheduled to be held in Srinagar on Thursday, a senior PDP leader said.

"Mufti has postponed his departure to Srinagar till Saturday after Prime Minister Dr Singh called and asked him to give sometime to the government to take a decision," a close aide of Sayeed said.

The prime minister told Sayeed, former chief minister of the state, that he had held preliminary discussions with his colleagues and more meetings were scheduled to take place in the next couple of days, he said.

"After all the request of the prime minister matters to us and therefore we decided to postpone tomorrow's meeting," the senior leader said.

(With PTI inputs)