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Bush to meet Vajpayee, Musharraf in New York: Fleischer

The White House on Wednesday said the United States President George W Bush will hold bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf during next week's UN General Assembly in New York, but did not give details.

Bush's press secretary Ari Fleischer said he will have exact details closer to the meetings. "The president will be having a series of bilateral meetings. The president will have what they call 'pull-asides', where he gets together with people for small, shorter amounts of time," Fleischer said. "But it will be a robust agenda where he is going to meet with numerous people."

Asked about Musharraf's reported statements that Pakistan will not support the US if it invades Iraq and that he does not want the US to attack any Muslim country, Fleischer said, "All these statements presuppose that a decision has been made to use military force. That is not accurate. The president will make the case for whatever decisions that he ultimately makes, and when he does, he is confident that people, as a result of the consultations, will listen and come to good judgements."

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