Bush wraps up South Asia trip with nuclear deal, terror assurances

Bush launched his trip under extraordinary security on Wednesday with a surprise stopover in Afghanistan, his first since the United States led a global campaign to overthrow the militant Taliban regime in 2001 after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

The centrepiece of his five-day trip was the clinching of a landmark civilian nuclear deal with India that aimed to firm up the strategic partnership between the world's most powerful and most populous democracies.

But the "war on terror" kept haunting him during the regional swing.

On Thursday, when he was meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, an American diplomat and a US consulate employee were killed by a suicide bomber in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.

A day later, while Bush travelled to the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, where nearly half of the population are Muslim, posters of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden were held up by demonstrators opposed to US foreign policies.

Counterterrorism was a common theme in Bush's talks with Singh, Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

By working with these leaders and their peoples, "we're seizing the opportunities this new century offers and helping to lay the foundations of peace and prosperity for generations to come," Bush told Americans in a radio address from here before his return home Saturday.

Illustrating the terrorism concerns, Bush arrived in Islamabad late Friday under cover of darkness, with the window blinds of his Air Force One pulled down and the lights off to conceal its presence. He was then taken by a helicopter and billeted at the heavily fortified US embassy.

Bin Laden and his key lieutenants are believed seeking refuge in rugged mountainous tribal areas along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. Taliban commanders are also reportedly taking sanctuary in Pakistan.