Paul McCartney has written to ask Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to declare a national Vegetarian Day in the country.

Ther ex-Beatle urged Prime Minister Singh to introduce the meat-free day in order to celebrate compassion towards animals, reports the Press Association.

In the letter he wrote that a Vegetarian Day "would be a celebration of life".

McCartney has been a vegetarian activist since the mid-1970s, when he and his then-wife Linda both gave up meat.

In 2003 it was estimated by the UN food agency that 42 per cent of India's 1.2 billion population were vegetarian.