PTI

Washington, Jan 4: United States President George W Bush is expected to visit India in the middle of February even though the White House has not announced any travel plans as yet.

President Bush is also likely to visit Pakistan, a key ally of the US in the war against terrorism.

Preparations for the visit have been on for some time now. But both sides have been tight-lipped not only on the Itinerary but also on what the American leader might be interested in doing in India.

At one point of time, there was a perception that the US president's visit to India could be towards the end of February or perhaps March.

The latest official exchanges on the subject took place when Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran was in Washington last December. The programme on the presidential visit is expected to be fine-tuned a little more when Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns visits New Delhi later this month.

Senior administration officials have been consistently talking about the growing nature of the bilateral relations in width and depth rather than confining it to just one or two areas.

The most talked about area of cooperation in recent days has been the proposed civilian nuclear deal between the two countries in the aftermath of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Washington last July. This, till recently, was supposed to have been the centrepiece of Bush's visit to India.

But now, it is clear that neither the administration will be able to send anything firm to Capitol Hill by January end nor will the Congress be able to schedule additional hearings on the subject before the first week of February.