Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit White House on September 27

Washington: President Barack Obama will welcome Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the White House on September 27, for talks on trade, investment and regional security, US officials said on Tuesday.

The administration unveiled the date of the meeting after US National Security Adviser Susan Rice met her Indian counterpart Shivshankar Menon here.

Obama visited India in 2010 during his first-term, as part of his administration's strategy of rebalancing US diplomacy towards rising Asia. Singh paid a state visit to Washington in 2009, Obama's first year in the White House.

Menon and Rice discussed civil and nuclear cooperation, regional security challenges, trade and Afghanistan, said National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.

The announcement of Singh's visit came as renewed tensions in Kashmir threaten to derail a possible meeting between Singh and Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif at the United Nations next month.

The Obama-Singh talks had been previously reported in India, but that the White House had not revealed the exact date.

The visit will follow a trip to India by US Vice President Joe Biden in July.