WASHINGTON - President Clinton and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, intent on improving U.S.-Indian relations, are tackling a main point of disagreement: India's nuclear weapons policies.
After a ceremonial welcome on the White House South Lawn, featuring a 19-gun salute, Vajpayee planned a 40-minute private talk with Clinton on Friday followed by an additional 30 minutes accompanied by top aides from both sides.
The two leaders canceled plans for an afternoon news conference at the request of the prime minister's staff, the White House said. ''It has been very long trip, an exhausting trip for the prime minister and they felt that the last event of the day, the press conference, was a little bit too much,' presidential spokesman Joe Lockhart said.
Clinton has called the South Asian region ''perhaps the most dangerous place in the world,'' a reference to the hostile relations India maintains with its nuclear-armed neighbors, Pakistan and China. India has had three wars with Pakistan and one with China.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Thursday that regional security concerns would be discussed at the White House meeting and that it was important that both Pakistan and India maintain their moratorium on nuclear testing.
The two countries caused alarm here when they carried out nuclear tests in May 1998. The administration has been urging both to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and to exercise restraint in other ways.
Vice President Al Gore was flying to Washington from New York for a luncheon meeting at the State Department with Vajpayee that was to take place after Gore addressed a gathering at Howard University.
Vajpayee talked by telephone with Texas Gov. George W. Bush not long after arriving on U.S. soil on Sept. 7. He departs Sunday.
Members of Congress praised Vajpayee's remarks Thursday before a joint session of senators and House members. He said that after long years of strained ties with Washington, ''the dawn of a new century has marked a new beginning in our relations.''
But a number of human rights and religious rights groups used the occasion of Vajpayee's visit to highlight alleged abuses in India.
Human Rights Watch expressed concern about ''widespread caste violence and discrimination, violence against the country's religious minorities and abuses by Indian security forces in Kashmir,'' the Himalayan territory that is shared by India and Pakistan and which is at the core of the Indo-Pakistani dispute.
Amnesty International said Indian troops are partly to blame for occurrences of ''torture, deaths in custody, disappearances and political killings in Kashmir.''
William Schulz, executive director of the group, said, ''President Clinton must use this opportunity to seek meaningful improvements in human rights in India.''
On Thursday, Clinton told reporters that the two nations ''need to have a better and closer and more constructive relationship,'' and that he hoped the United States could help end the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
''If you look at how well the Indians, the Pakistanis and the Bangladeshis who have come to America have done - the extraordinary percentage of them who are involved in high-tech economy professions - it is tragic to think what this conflict has done to hold back the people.''
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On the Net: State Department background on India: http://www.state.gov/www/regions/sa/index.html