Prime Minister Manmohan Singh leaves for New York to attend UNGA session

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left for New York to attend the UN General Assembly session there soon after a meeting with US President Barack Obama at the Oval Office.

Singh met Obama at the Oval Office of White House, their first bilateral summit meeting after nearly three years.

Accompanied by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, NSA Shivshankar Menon, Foreign Secretary Sujata Singh and Ambassador Nirupama Rao, Singh arrived at the White House for delegation-level talks that covered the stalemate in the ties over a civil nuclear deal finalised five years ago.

On his talks with Obama, Singh said, "We discussed the situation in the region, including Afghanistan and Pakistan." Obama praised Singh as a "great friend and partner to the United States and to me personally during his tenure as prime minister of India."

Obama said that just in the past few days, India and the United States had concluded a first commercial agreement which will breathe new life into a slowed civilian nuclear pact between the two countries.

Singh also thanked Obama for "his vision, for his courage in giving diplomacy yet another chance" as he responds to a chemical weapons attack in Syria and Iran's nuclear programme.

Singh stressed a warming of relations with Washington as a highlight of his premiership.

In New York, Singh would address the UN General Assembly session tomorrow and will meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on September 29.

But Singh, after his meeting with Obama, said expectations have to be "toned down" over his meeting with Sharif on Sunday, saying Pakistan remained an "epicentre of terrorism." Singh is scheduled to return home on Monday.