NEW DELHI, 14 July 2004 — US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage arrived in New Delhi yesterday for talks with top officials of India’s new left-leaning coalition government, an official said.

Armitage, who is on a 10-day tour of the Middle East, South and Central Asia, is known here for his diplomatic skills which he used to pull back South Asian rivals India and Pakistan from the brink of war in 2002.

He was today expected to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and hold talks with Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Foreign Minister Natwar Singh before lunch with National Security Adviser J.N. Dixit, Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said.

Armitage was also scheduled to meet opposition leader Lal Krishna Advani before leaving for Pakistan, Sarna said. “Armitage will be holding wide-ranging talks on bilateral and international issues; the situation in Iraq will figure in the talks,” he added.

The Indian government has ruled out sending troops to Iraq although Washington would like New Delhi to review its position now that a new transitional government has taken office in Baghdad. Other officials said the two sides will also discuss Afghanistan and India’s recent peace talks with Pakistan on the disputed region of Kashmir.

Parents of Slain British Girl

Seek Help in India

The parents of murdered British teenager Hannah Foster made an emotional appeal in India yesterday for help in tracking down a possible suspect, who is believed to have fled into the Indian countryside.

“We know we are westerners and not from your country or your culture. But we come to you in desperation, seeking help to obtain justice for Hannah,” her distraught father, Trevor Foster, accompanied by his wife, Hilary, told reporters in New Delhi.

Seventeen-year-old Hannah was raped and murdered in March, 2003, in Southampton.

British police, who have accompanied the Fosters, want to question Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, a migrant Sikh lorry driver.

The couple have offered a reward of 5 million Indian rupees ($110,000) for information leading to the arrest of Kohli.