Singh heads for New York, to meet world leaders

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left Frankfurt for New York on a five-day visit to the US, during which he will address the UN General Assembly and hold bilateral talks with world leaders.

The PM was in Frankfurt for an overnight halt en route the US, where he will meet President George W Bush at the White House on Thursday, besides Pakistan's new President Asif Ali Zardari and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

Singh, who will be addressing the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) after a gap of two years, is also due to meet his British and Italian counterparts -- Gordon Brown and

Silvio Berlusconi -- and Namibian President Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba 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 here on Monday evening, will kick off his parleys with a meeting with Wen followed by a meeting with the President of the World Bank Robert Zoellick.

The meeting with Bush 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.