Manmohan Singh meets Barack Obama; discusses implementation of civil nuclear deal

INDONESIA: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today declared that there were "no irritants" in Indo-US ties as he met US President Barack Obama here and disucssed the ways to implement the civil nuclear deal.

Singh, who met Obama for the first time after latter's trip to India last November, also talked about strengthening the bonds of strategic ties put in place during the historic visit of the US President to India in November last year.

"I am very happy to report to you that today there are no irritants whatsoever in our working together in multiplicity of areas both bilaterally and on global issues," Singh said in his opening remarks.

Emerging after their over an hour long meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN and East Asia Summits, Singh said he explained to Obama the law of the land on liability issue regarding the civil nuclear deal.

"I explained to him that we have a law in place. Rules have been formulated. These rules will lie before our parliament for 30 days. Therefore, we have gone some way to respond to the concerns of American companies and within the four corners of the law of the land we are ready to address any specific grievances," said Singh.

Prime Minister also said India was ready to ratify the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage.

"I also told him (Obama) that we'll ratify the Supplementary Convention... that's where the matter stands," Singh said.