In the wake of protests by Muslims against the visit of US President George W Bush, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided to invite Muslim scholars and intellectuals for a meeting with him.Concerned over the loss of life and violence during the protests, Singh is likely to tell them that the nuclear deal reached with Bush was not an endorsement of whatever the US was doing in Iraq and elsewhere. The meeting is likely to be held after the current Parliament session.Iraq was one of the "problem areas" between New Delhi and Washington, highly-placed sources said today, adding that hopefully Iran's nuclear programme would not fall in a similar category.The sources conceded that even within the higher echelons of the Congress party, there had been concerns about certain aspects of the nuclear deal. Before agreeing on it, the Prime Minister had briefed party president Sonia Gandhi to address these concerns.
