Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday strongly backed Bharti group's efforts for acquiring stakes in South African telecom giant MTN when he took up the issue with President Jacob Zuma and hoped that the deal will go through without any discrimination.

"As far as MTN issue is concerned, I mentioned it to (President) Zuma. I sincerely hope that this deal would go through and there will be no discrimination against it," he told reporters in reply to a question at a press conference here. Singh said officials of the two countries would discuss the issue.