Terror, Nuclear deal dominate PM-Bush talks

St Petersburg, July 17: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today conveyed to US President George W Bush India's concerns over terror and certain aspects of the proposed US conditions for ratifying the India-US nuclear deal and called for ''constructive solutions'' and a ''permanent reconciliation'' of the bilateral relations.

At a 40-minute meeting, held at the high security Konstantinovsky Palace Complex on the sidelines of the G8 summit, the two leaders made brief opening statements, expressing outrage at terrorism and their hope for getting the nuclear deal through at the earliest.

At the meeting held in a cordial atmosphere, Dr Singh was assisted by National Security Advisor M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, while the US side included Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

This was the first meeting between the two leaders since Mr Bush's visit to India in March this year.

The Prime Minister also had a bilateral meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel before joining the G8-Outreach Partners meeting.

In his opening remarks, Dr Singh said his government was accountable to Parliament which zealously kept a close watch on ''what we do and don't do'' for taking forward the nuclear deal for cooperation in civilian energy and as such it was necessary to ally the apprehensions of the law makers before getting down to finally implementing the deal.

UNI

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