Ties with India extremely important: US

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said South Asia is going to be "very high" on her list of priorities and that President George W Bush would be visiting India sometime this year with a view to "enhancing" US' relationship with New Delhi.

"Whole South Asia region I expect to be very high on my list of priorities. Enhancing the relationship with India will be extremely important," Rice said in her opening remarks at the State Department Correspondents Association meeting yesterday.

"As you know, we believe the President will be visiting sometime this year, enhancing the relationship with India at the same time that we maintain a good relationship with Pakistan and help Pakistan in its efforts to fight extremism," she said.

According to Rice, the region of Central Asia through Afghanistan which was once described as an "arc of crisis" by National Security Advisor to former President Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski, is now turning out to be an "arc of opportunity".

She noted that Afghanistan would have to be seen in a regional context and hence the rationale of moving some countries from Central Asia from the US State Department's European bureau to a South Asia bureau so as to have an integrated approach.

"It's now, in many ways, an arc of opportunity, but we're going to have to work very hard in South Asia and I expect that to be very important," Rice said.