Saturday, July 16 2005 12:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the United States will provide added "depth and breadth" to bilateral ties in areas such as energy, culture and defence, the US State Department has said.

"It is an important visit that signals the increasing depth and breadth of the US-India relationship across a variety of different topics and those have been outlined in the next steps for a strategic Partnership," State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said here (Washington).

"It covers a wide variety of different areas, from energy to cultural exchanges to the beginnings of a military-to-military relationship," McCormack said yesterday (July 15, 2005).

"So I (McCormack) expect that they (Singh and US President George W Bush) will be talking about all those issues as well as things that happen to be on the mind of the Prime Minister as well."

Bush was looking forward to his meeting with Singh on Monday (July 18, 2005) and would host a dinner for him while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will have a luncheon meeting with him, the spokesman said.

Rice had met with External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the run-up to the visit and was looking forward to the discussions with the Indian Prime Minister, McCormack added.

Singh will have separate interactions with Vice President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil besides other key officials.

On July 19 (Tuesday), he will address the joint session of US Congress. He will also meet representatives of the House International Relations Committee and India Caucus.