Tuesday, September 13 2005 15:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Paris: After a two-day successful visit to France during which he secured French support for India's civilian nuclear programme, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today (Sept 13, 2005) left for New York where he would hold talks with US President George W Bush and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

Singh, who would be addressing the UN General Assembly tomorrow (Sept 14, 2005), was given a ceremonial farewell at Orly Airport before he boarded the special Air India flight for New York along with his delegation that included External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh, National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran.

Prior to his departure, he met India Studies scholars at his hotel. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin hosted a dinner in his honour last night (Sept 12, 2005).

Officials described Singh's visit as 'highly successful' and said it marked a giant step in strengthening and deepening the bilateral relationship.

Like the US and Britain, France also acknowledged the need for full international civilian nuclear cooperation with India and promised to work towards this objective with the 44-member Nuclear Suppliers Group and other countries.

They termed as significant the decision of both countries to firm up a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement and another framework agreement on Defence cooperation at an early date.

The officials said during talks with President Jacques Chirac, the Prime Minister had appreciated France's reaffirmation of support for India's candidature for permanent membership of the Security Council.

The Indian side has expressed interest in France's proposals in the area of development financing and for the reform of international governance of the environment.

During the parleys, the two leaders signaled their intention to take Indo-French ties to a new and higher level. The officials said France shared India's concerns over the global threat posed by terrorism and agreed to jointly fight the scourge.

The two sides have also decided to strengthen cooperation in dealing with other global challenges like proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, promoting development, which is economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.

Singh's visit at the invitation of the French President illustrated the importance attached by the two countries to further bolster the strategic partnership, initiated in January 1998, the officials said.

The officials said Singh also effectively conveyed to French CEOs that the economic reforms process was irreversible and they should take advantage of the immense business opportunities that have opened up in India.

Singh has conveyed to Chirac that he was looking forward to the French leader's visit to India on February 20-21, 2006.