India is very important to us: US

Ahead of a top State Department official's visit to New Delhi and Mumbai, the United States on Monday said India is very important for the Obama administration. "This region of the world is very important to us. India is very important to us, as the world's largest democracy. They just had elections," State Department official Ian Kelly told media persons at his daily press briefing.

The under secretary of state for political affairs, William Burns, would be travelling to India beginning June 10 to hold first high level consultations with the Manmohan Singh government after it was voted back to power in general elections last month.

The State Department spokesman said this is just part of Burn's routine visit to the various parts of the world. In an interview to the ABC news channel, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said that the US would be working very hard on its relationship with countries like Indonesia, Turkey and India.

Clinton herself is scheduled to visit India in July, although no date has been officially announced yet.