By Arun Kumar

Washington, Sep 9 (IANS): The United States believes that India as "an anchor of stability" in a critical part of the world will have to play a leading role in resolving regional and global issues more effectively.

The two countries may have differences even as they forge a strategic partnership, but they have an effective dialogue to resolve them, State Department spokesman Phillip Crowley told reporters Wednesday.

"Certainly, from a bilateral standpoint, we will have issues that crop up from time to time, and we are in an effective dialogue to resolve those issues," he said when asked how the US and India can build an "indispensable partnership" in the face of issues like India's nuclear liability law and US hike of visa fees for professionals.

"But we'd also recognize that India is an anchor of stability in a critical part of the world," Crowley said referring to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's speech Wednesday that President Barack Obama will use his November visit to India to take US ties with an "indispensable" partner to the next level.

"And in fact, India can be, as the Secretary said in her remarks today, developing new partners who are able to assume greater responsibility for critical issues in the future," he said.

"India will have to play a significant role in the global action to combat climate change," Crowley said. "And India can play a leading role in terms of the (global) institutions that the Secretary talked about today, the regional architecture that we hope to build in different parts of the world to be able to address regional and global issues more effectively."

Asked how did they plan to address the concerns of the businesses from both India and US over the Indian nuclear liability legislation making suppliers potentially liable, he said the issue would be resolved through dialogue as the India-US civil nuclear deal was in the interest of both.

"We will do it by what we're doing now," Crowley said. "We've been focused on this for a long time. We believe that this agreement and its full implementation is in both the interest of the United States and India."

"We are having discussions with India about what just passed the parliament," he said. "We recognize that both other countries and businesses within India that have raised similar concerns. And we'll work with the Government of India to address those concerns."

"We do have an ongoing Strategic Dialogue with India," Crowley noted. "We do believe earnestly that the world's oldest democracy and the world's largest democracy have a great deal in common."