Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, greeted the US leader at a heavily-guarded Delhi airport where Bush's Air Force One 747 landed shortly before 8 pm
Balaji Reddu
Mar. 1, 2006

Prime Minsister Manmohan Singh received US President George Bush with open hearts in traditional Indian style.

Acoording to media reports, US President George W Bush, arrived in New Delhi tonight on a three-day official visit to India strongly backing a nuclear deal with India on which his officials were in touch their Indian counterparts even from his special aircraft.

Setting aside protocol, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, greeted the US leader at a heavily-guarded Delhi airport where Bush's Air Force One 747 landed shortly before 8 pm after a surprise four-hour stop over in Kabul.

Wearing a dark blue suit and pink shirt, Bush and his wife Laura, stepped down the ladder to be received by Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur, as American sharp shooters kept vigil.

A smiling, waving Bush put his arm around the Prime Minister's back as they an animated conversation lasting a few minutes on the tarmac. Thereafter they posed for photographs but Bush made no arrival statement.

Before driving to Maurya Sheraton Hotel in his armour-plated limousine specially flown from the US, he shook hands with Science Minister Kapil Sibal, the Minister in waiting, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan, and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, and US Ambassador David C Mulford.

Bush who is accompanied by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has no official engagement tonight and will be ceremonially welcomed at Rashtrapati Bhavan when he has a heavy schedule.

As interlocuters from both sides made last minute efforts to seal the landmark nuclear pact reached last July, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs met under the chairmanship of Prime Minister and is understood to have discussed the broad parameters of a possible deal that could be concluded during the visit.

"Our people are talking to Indians today on the plane about trying to come to a civilian power agreement," Bush said at a press conference in Kabul before he flew to New Delhi.

"It is a difficult issue for the Indian Government. It is a difficult issue for the American Government. So, we continue to dialogue and work and hopefully we can reach an agreement. If not, we will continue to work on that until we do," he said.

The US President advocated an international consortium that will enable countries to develop their nuclear power industries in safe ways, prevent proliferation as also excessive consumption of fossil fuels.

"It is in our interest and the interest of the United States --- it is in the interests of countries around the world that India develop a nuclear power industry because that will help alleviate demand of fossil fuels," said Bush, who holds talks with Singh and other leaders tomorrow.

Contending that the US relationship with India was "broader than our discussions about energy", he said "ours is a strategic relationship .... it is a relationship that's got strong ties because of economics and our military, our desire to help democracies such as Afghanistan."

Rejecting the notion that if the nuclear energy initiative is not signed during the present visit then the deal could lose its momentum, Rice told reporters on Air Force One that sticking points remained in the way of the nuclear agreement.

"The one thing that is absolutely necessary is that any agreement would assure that once India has decided to put a reactor under safeguard that it remain permanently under safeguard," she said, according to the transcript released by the US administration.

The provision Rice cited would prevent India from transferring a reactor from civilian to military status, thus exempting it from international inspections. Rice said she was uncertain whether there would be an agreement during Bush's trip but emphasised that the success or failure of his visit wouldn''t be determined by that.

"We''re still working on it," she said. "Obviously it would be an important breakthrough" for the United States and India.

"We very much would like to have a deal," she said. "We are continuing to work on it." She expressed confidence that if no deal results from this trip, the U.S. and India would get one later.

She said this trip was about the relationship between the United States and India. It's business development, it's science and technology development, going back to agriculture.

"This is a very broad relationship that is deepening, and I think benefiting the world as it did, and cooperation on the tsunami, as it demonstrated in the IAEA Board of Governors, where India joined the consensus on Iran. So there's a lot that is going to be cemented here."

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