Indian army chief visiting Washington

The Indian army chief, General Sundarajan Padmanabhan, is visiting Washington on a week-long trip to forge closer ties with the United States.

The visit follows last week's agreement for the purchase by India of eight US-made Firefinder counter-battery artillery radars - the first arms deal between the two countries for more than a decade.

Earlier this year, the US lifted a ban on arms sales to India and Pakistan imposed after their series of nuclear tests in 1998.

However, for some time before this, the Americans had not sold arms to India, which has traditionally used Russia as its main supplier.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service