Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba continued holding dialogue with senior government officials in New Delhi on the second day of his official visit to India.

Indian Railway Minister and influential leader of Bihar state bordering Nepal, Laloo Prasad Yadav, called on Deuba Friday morning at Hotel Taj Mansingh where the Nepali premier is staying. Yadav said that India was supporting five different railway projects in Nepal.

Similarly, Water Resources Minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi also held a meeting with the visiting premier. Details of the meeting were not immediately available.

Deuba also met leader of the ruling Congress, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, and leader of the main opposition, Bharatiya Janata Party, L K Advani, on Friday. They held discussions on issues of bilateral relations.

The government of Nepal had extended invitation to Mrs. Gandhi to visit Kathmandu when Indian Foreign Minister, K Natwar Singh, visited the Nepali capital early this year– his first foreign visit after assuming office.

Premier Deuba and other senior officials also attended a luncheon meeting hosted in their honour by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He offered full security to Indian investors in Nepal and invited them to come and invest in Nepal.

Indian industrialists, however, said security was a must to invite any investment. Analysts in Kathmandu say the government would have to work quite hard to win back the investors’ confidence following selected attacks at Nepali and foreign establishments in the capital on September 1.

On Thursday, the Nepali premier had held meeting with his Indian counterpart, Dr. Manmohan Singh, and also called on President of India, APJ Abdul Kalam.

Nepal and India have already signed on four different memorandum of understandings to extend cooperation in the areas of culture and sports, weather forecasting, laying down of petroleum pipelines and standardisation of products. nepalnews.com by Sep 10 04