PM to meet Zardari, Jiabao among world leaders on US visit

NEW YORK: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets the new Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari here tomorrow as part of his high-level diplomatic engagements during his visit to the US that will see India pitchfork issues ranging from terrorism to expansion of UN Security Council.

The prime minister, who will be addressing the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) after a gap of two years ,is also due to meet US President George W Bush and his Chinese and British counterparts - Wen Jiabao, and Gordon Brown -- for talks on bilateral, regional and international issues.

Singh's meetings with world leaders on the sidelines of the 62nd session of UNGA in a packed schedule are the first after India secured the crucial NSG waiver that brought the country back into nuclear mainstream 34 years after the Pokhran explosions.

The prime minister, who flew in last evening to begin his five-day visit to the US, will kick off his parleys with a meeting with Wen followed by a meeting with the President of the World Bank Robert Zoellick. Singh is due to meet Bush on Thursday evening at the Oval office in Washington and will be hosted a working dinner at the Old Family Dining room at the White House.

The meeting takes place amid growing uncertainty over whether the US Congress will greenlight the 123 Agreement in the last lap of the tortuous journey of the Indo-US nuclear deal to coincide with Singh's working visit to Washington.