Friday, March 3 2006 18:16 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: US President George W Bush will press for dismantling of terrorist training camps in Pakistan during his discussions with President Pervez Musharraf tomorrow(Mar 4,2006).

In his talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here yesterday(Mar 2,2006), the US leader is believed to have voiced his admiration for Musharraf who had made Pakistan an important American ally in the war against terrorism.

At the same time, Bush said that he would be pressing the Pakistani leader to end terrorism emanating from his country and dismantle training camps existing there.

Bush made it clear that Washington was not interested in mediating between India and Pakistan on their bilateral issues. He was encouraged by the Indo-Pak dialogue process.

Iran was among the important subjects discussed by the two leaders with Singh underlining that it would not be wise to push that country into a corner. Iran was an old civilisation and a proud country, he pointed out.

Counselling patience in dealing with Iran, the Prime Minister told Bush that the issue of its nuclear programme should be handled diplomatically and through dialogue. At the same time, he made it clear that India did not want to see another nuclear weapons state in its neighbourhood.

Bush responded by stating that it was not Tehran's nuclear programme alone that caused concern in Washington but also its backing to 'terror groups' in Iraq. Nonetheless, the US had given time to Tehran for negotiations.

During the discussion on bilateral matters, the two leaders noted that Indo-US ties have become broad-ranging.

Bush referred to recent joint air force exercises and told Singh that the US air force had been dazzled by the skills of IAF pilots.

On the issue visas for Indian professionals, Bush saidthat he was aware of difficulties in obtaining H1B visas and his administration was examining what could be done to liberalise the visa regime.