PM-Bush meet: Nuclear deal not concluded

Washington, Sep 26 (UNI) The Indo-US civilian nuclear deal was not concluded today as expected, while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George Bush met at the Oval Office here and discussed a wide range of issues, includng the civilian nuclear initiative appreciating each for working hard on the agreement.

The two met for about 45 minutes and discussed several areas of mutual interest, including bilateral, regional and international situation.

Both the leaders congratulated each other for ''workng hard'' on the deal.

The two leaders, looking satisfied, made opening statements but did not take any questions frrom reporters.

The Prime Minister was assisted during the discussions by Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, National Security Advisor (NSA) M K Narayanan, Prime Minister's Special Envoy Shyam Saran and India's Ambassador to the US Ronen Sen.

US Ambassador to Indian David Mulford was also present.

MORE UNI RB SBA UCS0508