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Clinton arrives in India for South Asian tour

NEW DELHI: President Bill Clinton arrived in New Delhi on Sunday for the first visit in 22 years by a U.S. head of state to India.

Clinton was expected to try to ease tensions between nuclear capable neighbours India and Pakistan in his six-day South Asian tour, which will include a day trip to Bangladesh on Monday and brief stopover in Pakistan next Saturday. He would also focus on India's booming high-technology sector in a visit which many hope will improve economic ties, affected by mutual suspicion during the Cold War and then by tit-for-tat nuclear tests conducted by India and Pakistan in 1998.

Clinton has said that he hopes to use the visit to ease tensions between India and Pakistan, though he faces stiff resistance from India over any U.S. attempt to mediate. India opposes any international mediation over Kashmir.

New Delhi, which spring-cleaned its dusty streets and hoisted welcome flags ahead of Clinton's arrival, was due to sign three accords during the visit, covering overall bilateral ties, science and technology, and energy and the environment.

Clinton, accompanied by daughter Chelsea and mother-in-law Dorothy Rodham, was to visit the tourist cities of Jaipur and Agra, the technology centre of Hyderabad, and the financial centre of Bombay during his Indian tour, whose official leg begins on Tuesday.-Reuters