New York: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on September 24, met US President George W Bush, for talks on issues including the Iraq situation and the global fight against terror.

The two leaders shook hands and posed for photographs before they went into discussions at Hotel Waldorf Astoria. After preliminary talks, the parleys continued over lunch.

The meeting was held in the backdrop of US request to India for stationing its troops in Iraq, which India has said, was not possible without an explicit mandate from the UN.

India has made it clear that apart from the UN mandate the question of Indian troops being deployed in the war-ravaged country would also depend on a political consensus back home.

Reiterating the US position, Bush had said earlier this week he would love to have Indian troops in Iraq and would take up the issue with Vajpayee.

The Prime Minister is also understood to have raised with the US leader New Delhi's concerns over continuing cross-border terrorism and the need to rein in terror from across India's borders.

Vajpayee and Bush had met in St.Petersburg in May during the tricentenary celebrations of the historic Russian city.

While Bush is meeting a number of world leaders during his three-day stay here, he is having a bilateral luncheon meeting only with Vajpayee.

The US President is also slated to hold a meeting with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

The Vajpayee-Bush meeting takes place a day before the Indian leader addresses the UN General Assembly where he is expected to focus on the threats posed by terrorism and the need for the international community to combat the scourge unitedly.

PTI