Tuesday, January 4 2005 12:12 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: US President George W Bush has said that he hoped to visit India in 2005. Bush, who visited the Indian embassy in Washington yesterday (Jan 3, 2005) to pay his respects to Tsunami victims, referred to his telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, three days after the December 26 tragedy.

"I was just telling the Ambassador, when I spoke to the Prime Minister I assured him that my intentions were to make it this year to India," he told reporters when asked about his India visit.

"In the meantime, though, our country stands with the people who've suffered. We want the Indian Government, the Indian people to know that we'll help in any way we can," Bush said.

Bush said India has taken a lead in organising relief efforts around the region and thanked Singh for his "very strong leadership" in this regard.

"I want to thank the Indian Government for taking a lead in this issue. One of the first things that we did was to put together a core group of nations, nations that are capable of organizing relief efforts around the region, and the Indian Government has been especially strong, as a part of this core group. And I told the Ambassador to thank the Prime Minister for his very strong leadership," Bush added.

Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen recalled to correspondents afterwards that when President Bush met the Prime Minister in New York during the UN General Assembly session, he told him that his priority (this year) includes a visit to India.