Bali, Nov 18 (IANS) Declaring that there were "no irritants whatsoever" in their relationship, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama met here Friday. They discussed the key issue of civil nuclear liability law, with the Indian leader stating that specific grievances could only be addressed within the "four corners of the law of the land".

"I explained to him that we have a law in place and rules have been formulated... These will lie in parliament for 30 days. Therefore we have gone some way to respond to concerns of American companies and within the four corners of the law of the land, we are willing to address any specific grievances," Manmohan Singh said after the delegation level talks that lasted for over an hour.

The two leaders, who met at Grand Hyatt hotel where Obama is staying, made brief opening remarks to a section of the media before sitting down for delegation level talks.

"Bonds between our countries are not just at the leadership level but also the personal level," Obama, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other senior officials by his side, told Manmohan Singh.

Obama, who began by remembering his "extraordinary visit" to India "around the same time last year" and referred to Manmohan Singh as his "dear friend", said this was an outstanding opportunity to address a range of issues at the bilateral and multilateral level.

"Last year around this time, I embarked on what was an extraordinary trip to India, in which we continued to strengthen the bonds, both commercial, on the security side, and strategic between the world's two largest democracies.

"And since that time, we've continued to make progress on a wide range of issues. The bonds between our countries are not just at the leadership level, but they're, obviously, at the person-to-person level given the extraordinary contributions of Indian Americans to our culture, our politics and our economy."

"This will be an outstanding opportunity for us to continue to explore how we can work together, not only on bilateral issues but also in multilateral fora, like the East Asia Summit, which we believe can be the premier arena for us to be able to work together on a wide range of issues, such as maritime security or nonproliferation, as well as expanding the kind of cooperation on disaster relief and humanitarian aid that's so important."

The Indian prime minister, who put forward his view on the civil nuclear liability issue later, responded by saying there "were no irritants whatsoever" in the working relationship between the two countries extending across "multiplicity of areas".

Recalling Obama's "historic visit" to India, Manmohan Singh went on to say that "progress in every direction" had been made during the last year. These include areas such as trade, investment, clean energy and defence.