Bush calls up Vajpayee

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 16. The U.S. President, Mr. George Bush, tonight spoke to the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, over telephone and discussed with him the situation arising out of the terrorist strikes of September 11 in New York and Washington.

In the conversation which lasted for about 10 minutes, Mr. Vajpayee said he was sending the National Security Adviser, Mr. Brajesh Mishra, who is in Moscow, directly to Washington for detailed discussions. According to the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Mr. Bush welcomed the suggestion and said that Mr. Mishra will be received by the U.S. National Security Adviser, Ms. Condoleeza Rice.

Both the leaders agreed that India and the U.S. should help each other by exchanging information about terrorist organisations spread across the globe.

Mr. Vajpayee said that India shared the ``pain and anger'' of the people of the U.S. and assured Mr. Bush that New Delhi will extend the fullest cooperation for bringing the terrorists to justice. Mr. Bush agreed that terrorism was a global problem which could not be tackled individually.

Both the leaders agreed that the fight against terrorism was not against any religion or nationality, but was only against terrorists. The Prime Minister also drew the attention of Mr. Bush to the recent attacks on Sikhs in the U.S.

In a related development, authoritative sources here said that contrary to reports, Pakistan had not raised any conditions with the U.S. for offering support in the counter-terrorism campaign.

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