External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said that Indian students are being singled out in Australia and asked Canberra to do "some introspection" to check such violence immediately.

"We want attacks on Indian students to be stopped forthwith. This is unacceptable," Krishna told reporters when asked about repeated attacks in Australia that have created a huge public outrage in India.

"Students from other countries are studying in Australia. Why should such attacks happen on Indian students only? Indian students are being singled out,".

There has been a wave of attacks on Indian students and taxi drivers since May last year. Students and taxi drivers of Indian origin have found themselves being targeted in both Melbourne and Sydney, sparking allegations of widespread racism in Australian society and a failure by the law enforcement authorities to act.

Krishna said New Delhi had received no such complaints from the US, where nearly 100,000 Indian students are studying.

Indian misled, say Oz cop

Meanwhile, Australian police allege a man of Indian descent who claimed he was doused in petrol and set alight last month was not the victim of a racist attack but injured himself while setting his car alight in a failed insurance scam, news reports said Wednesday.

The incident, which came a week after Nitin Garg, a 21-year-old accounting graduate, was stabbed to death while walking to his job at a Melbourne fast-food restaurant, inflamed tensions between Canberra and Delhi over the safety of Indians in Australia.

Police have downplayed racial motives in a series of attacks on Indians, saying street crime disproportionately affects the 90,000 Indian students studying in Australia. Many of the students pay for their education by working part time in convenience stores, petrol stations and fast-food restaurants.

"It certainly will have some bearing on the bilateral ties between our two countries," Krishna said