Posted on 03/15/2005 1:02:32 AM PST by Righty_McRight
NEW DELHI (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) is to start a six-nation Asian tour in New Delhi, where her talks were expected to be dominated by the peace process between India and Pakistan.
Rice, on her first visit to Asia since assuming the office, was to arrive in the evening with her official programme starting Wednesday, when she has a whirlwind day of meetings.
Officials said she is scheduled to hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Foreign Minister Natwar Singh and senior opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani before continuing to Islamabad for talks with Pakistani leaders.
Diplomats and officials said discussions would revolve around regional issues headed by the thaw between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan and the takeover by King Gyanendra in Nepal.
The visit is expected to pave the way for a trip by President George W. Bush (news - web sites) to emerging economic power India.
Bush wants to come to India to build on a growing business relationship and cajole New Delhi into supporting efforts to rebuild Iraq (news - web sites), diplomats said.
"Bush has already said he'd like to visit India early in his second term," a New Delhi-based US diplomat said. "That's not the official reason for the trip by Rice but it will likely come up, as well as regional cooperation and deeper business ties."
In what was widely seen as a diplomatic triumph for India, Bush accepted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's invitation to visit when they met last September on the sidelines of the United Nations (news - web sites) General Assembly in New York.
"There is a broad commitment from Bush to visit India but the dates still have to be finalised. It would certainly come up for discussion during Rice's visit," said Raja Mohan, an adviser to India's National Security Council.
US companies are flocking to India to open offshore service centres, sell consumer goods to its growing middle class and push sales of high-tech and military equipment. Two-way trade between the countries rose 17 percent to 21 billion dollars last year.
In Islamabad, Rice will hold talks with her counterpart Khurshid Kasuri and meet President Pervez Musharraf, Pakistani foreign office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said.
On Thursday Rice will make a short trip to Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s capital Kabul and return the same day, leaving Islamabad Friday after meeting Kasuri, he said.
"Besides discussing bilateral relations, we would also be discussing the regional situation," Jilani said.
However, he did not say if Rice would make any announcement about Pakistan's request to buy more F-16 fighter jets from the US. India strongly opposes the sale.
Pakistan has been a staunch ally of US President George W. Bush since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
Rice continues from Pakistan to Japan, South Korea (news - web sites) and China.
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