A long-awaited meeting between US president George W Bush and Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh ended Wednesday without a formal announcement that India is ready to implement their bilateral accord on civil nuclear power.

Instead, the two countries leaders used the meeting – on the fringes of the G8 summit in Japan – to lavish praise on each other. They hailed the growing strength of their bilateral relationship, which they said included nuclear cooperation but extended to other issues such as trade and the environment.