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NEW DELHI, May 2 (Reuters) - India's embattled government on Thursday did an about-face in joining opposition condemnation of religious violence a day after defeating a parliamentary censure motion over its failure to halt riots in western Gujarat state.

Instead of fighting the upper house motion, as it had been expected to do, the Hindu nationalist-led coalition said it shared the anguish expressed in the resolution and appealed for it to be supported unanimously.

"We have never said we are absolved of our responsibility," Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh told the upper house.

The motion, moved by the main opposition Congress party, expressed anguish over the violence and urged the national government "to intervene effectively to protect the lives and properties of citizens".

The government, led by Singh's Bharatiya Janata Party, does not have a majority in the upper house and had faced certain defeat if it fought the motion. It defeated a censure motion in the lower house on Wednesday over its response to Hindu-Muslim violence that killed more than 900 people over the past two months.

"The government shares the anguish expressed in the motion," Singh said, adding "we should pass the motion unanimously and work together to meet the challenges". With Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's 19-member coalition joining the motion, it was not immediately known whether a vote on it would be held later on Thursday. 

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