Saturday, July 16 2005 14:03 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: The meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President George W Bush was expected to usher in a "historic step forward" in the bilateral relationship, a senior American official has said.

Asserting, "The mutual interests of India and the United States are now coinciding more than ever before," the official said, "It is a new day in the relationship."

For the US, he said, there was no higher priority than expanding and broadening the relationship with India.

"The US sees India as one of our most important partners worldwide, given the fact that India is a rising democratic power in the region and the world. We have never had an Indo-US relationship as comprehensive and as broad-based and so important in its full dimensions for both countries. We see India as one of our key partners worldwide," the official told Indian and American correspondents yesterday (July 15, 2005).

"We are very, very close now to completion of the NSSP (Next Steps in Strategic Partnership). That is why Monday's visit is so important. Our interests coincide more than ever before. That is one of the reasons why we have this emerging relationship at several levels," he said.

The development of this relationship, said the senior official, is one of the most important undertakings that the US has embarked on in its foreign policy. "It is the beginning of a new relationship."

The official expected a series of bilateral measures during the Prime Minister's visit in areas such as information technology, business, commerce, other economic issues, energy, space, disaster response, agriculture, science and technology and an initiative to preserve the Bengal Tiger.