Barack Obama gets ceremonial welcome, talks today

New Delhi : US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold a joint news conference after holding the significant bilateral talks on Monday afternoon.

Obama was accorded a ceremonial welcome on Monday morning at the Rashtrapati Bhavan by the President of India, Pratibha Patil.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur were present.

?I thank all the people of India for the extraordinary hospitality,? Obama said after the welcome.

He reiterated that the India-USA partnership will be the most defining partnership of the 21st century.

?We will continue to build on the commercial ties,? he said, adding that issue like counter-terrorism will be addressed jointly.

?We share extraordinary people to people contact,? he said, and called India a world power, and not just an emerging power.

Obama then left for Raj Ghat to pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi.

President will meet the Congress President Sonia Gandhi later in the day.

He will also interact with the Leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj on Monday.

In the evening Barrack Obama will address a joint session in the Parliament.

Later on, he will meet President Pratibha Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, and then attend a state dinner at night.

Earlier, on Sunday night, a scheduled 25-minute meeting between US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lingered for 50 minutes at the residence of the PM where the US first couple attended a private dinner that was graced by the political and cultural royalty of India.

The Prime Minister and the US President were understood to have discussed bilateral issues and their strategic partnerships.

The power dinner was attended by 60 guests who included among others Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony, S M Krishna, L K Advani, Arun Jaitley, Viswanathan Anand, Aamir Khan, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Ratan Tata, Azim Premji and N R Narayan Murthy.