"I have visited Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and personally apologized. It was just a clerical error," US Consul General in Mumbai Paul A. Folmsbee said.

The controversy erupted earlier this week after the US consulate in Mumbai sought identification papers from Maharashtra's top dignitaries in order to attend various events to be graced by Obama over the next couple of days.

Feeling slighted by the demand for details like birth date, nationality, passport number, PAN card, etc, the state's leaders hinted that they may not be in a position to attend the president's functions, an official said.

"However, now that the US authorities have apologized, the matter has been resolved," the official said Friday.

The state officials were taken aback by the US consulate's conditions that the dignitaries like the chief minister and his deputy, and others would have to produce their identity cards.

"President Barack Obama will make a brief statement to commemorate the tragic attacks on Nov. 26, 2008, respect the victims. Kindly attend the event. For security reasons, bring this letter, along with a photo identify card, RSVP to protocol adviser," said the invitation letter sent out on behalf of Folmsbee.

The "offensive" invitation letter was sent to Chavan, Bhujbal, Home Minister R.R. Patil, state Chief Secretary J.P. Dange, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Chandra Iyengar and four others, had not been taken lightly by all the government and political invitees for the US President's function.

The consulate also asked Chavan and the other prominent invitees from the state government to fill out a form with other details and submit it to the consulate by Nov 2.

"The tone and language of the US consul general's invitation letter has shocked us. How strange it is for Folmsbee to demand that Chavan and Bhujbal should produce their identity cards prior to entering the venue. This is an outright insult and no decent way of the Americans to treat our chief minister and the Deputy chief minister. We are not going to tolerate this or any other kind of humiliation from anyone," a senior bureaucrat told Arab News on Friday.

However, the diplomatic gaffe has been treated as a "clerical error" and it is expected that all the state VIPs would rub shoulders with the visiting US President Saturday and Sunday.

Patil and Iyengar, as a protest, expressed their inability to attend any functions of the US president, while Chavan and Bhujbal have yet to make up their minds whether or not to attend Obama's functions.

Taking note of the sentiments of the miffed ministers and bureaucrats, Protocol Secretary Mullick wrote to the Ministry of External Affairs, wanting to know if the ministers and bureaucrats should attend the US president's function. The ministry in a diplomatic way threw the ball back into the state government's court stating that the private function was organized by the US consulate in Mumbai and that Chavan and others should take their own decision. However, in the opinion of the state government, Chavan, Bhujbal and others should boycott any functions of Obama during his two-day visit to the city.