New Delhi: United States Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke to External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha on January 3 night for a general exchange of views ahead of a visit next week by a top Bush administration official to India.

Besides exchanging New Year greetings, the two leaders talked about the visit of US State Department's director of Policy Planning Richard Haass.

Though primarily coming to participate in the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) partnership summit, Haass will use the opportunity to meet National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra and Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal on January 6 and apprise them of US perceptions of the Iraq crisis.

India has strongly opposed any unilateral use or threat of use of force against Iraq in violation of the United Nations (UN) Charter. It is of the view that a comprehensive settlement of the situation was possible only through political and diplomatic efforts strictly within the rules of international law and only under the aegis of the UN.

New Delhi has also underlined the importance of continuing intensive work with the Iraqi leadership in order to encourage it to co-operate in good faith with the UN on the issue of dismantling of weapons of mass destruction.

In Washington, US officials said Powell and Sinha had "a general discussion".

"They talked a little bit about the forthcoming visit to India by Haass," they said.

"There was no particular reason for the call; it was in the nature of a beginning of the year call," they said.

As part of their intensified dialogue on international security issues, India and the United States will also hold talks here on missile defence later in January.

PTI