US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta held talks Tuesday with Indian Premier Manmohan Singh on boosting bilateral military ties, amid Washington's new strategic focus on the Asia-Pacific region. Panetta met Singh and National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon on the first day of his two-day visit to India. No information on the meetings was released, but officials said the discussions centred on consolidating military ties, according to dpa. Panetta's main meeting, with Defence Minister AK Antony, is due Wednesday, after which he is to address the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, an Indian think tank. In Delhi - the last leg of an eight-day tour of Asia that included stops in Singapore and Vietnam - Panetta announced at the weekend that the US would deploy 60 per cent of its naval fleet to the Asia-Pacific region by 2020.
