US President George Bush [Images] today told the joint press conference with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images] that there has been no change in America's policy on Jammu and Kashmir [Images] and reiterated the policy laid down by President Clinton that the sanctity of the Line of control will be maintained. However, he did not elaborate , but went on to applaud Prime Minister Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf [Images] for forging ahead with the peace process and spoke about the strength of character of the prime minister.

First Look: The Summit

The press conference was held at the East Room of the White House, where a section of seats were reserved for the Indian media and another section for the American media. Present were members of both the US and Indian Cabinets. Also present were the top line of US and Indian business. Among the latter were Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Ashok Ganguly, Yogi Deveshwar, Dr Pratap C Reddy, Deepak Parekh, Baba Kalyani and Nandan Nilekani.

Complete coverage: Manmohan Singh in Washington

The President and the Prime Minister each took two questions each. Predictably, the two questions from the American media focused on the President's advisor Karl Rove and the choice US Supreme Court judge. The two questions from the Indian media were on the US policy on Kashmir (posed by the editor of The Tribute, H K Dua), and on a deal between the two countries on nuclear energy and transfer of fuel (posed by editor of The Hindu, N Ravi). To the latter, the prime minister said the answer would be provided in the joint statement shortly.

After the press conference, the two heads of state left for the meeting of the CEOs' Forum which President Bush described as "a definite landmark in Indo-US ties".