'Couldn't take Obama call as I was travelling'

ON BOARD AIR INDIA ONE: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said he could not take a telephone call from US president-elect Barack Obama as he was travelling and that it would be set up at "another time".

"I got a call on Saturday but could not take it as I was travelling," Manmohan Singh told reporters on board his special aircraft while returning home from a two-nation visit to the Gulf.

"The call will be set up another time," he added.

Responding to a question on India-US ties under the Obama administration, the prime minister said: " I have absolutely no doubt that India's relations with the US would be perfectly in order."

The prime minister said he had also conveyed his condolences to Obama over the death of his grandmother.

Indian media reports on Sunday had suggested that the foreign policy establishment in New Delhi was not perturbed over the fact that Obama had not telephoned Manmohan Singh even as he had spoken to 15 world leaders, including Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, after his election.