WASHINGTON: External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee met the U.S. President George W. Bush here at the White House and discussed the entire gamut of bilateral ties, including the civil nuclear deal.

The 35-minute meeting, held at the Oval Office on Monday afternoon.

Bush and Mukherjee are said to have exchanged not only pleasantries but also discussed the width and depth of the United States-India relations that included the civilian nuclear initiative.

Specific details of the meeting have not been made available to the media excepting the point that the Indian Minister would like to describe them first hand at the press conference, now scheduled for Tuesday.

"You will know tomorrow from the Minister" was all that a senior official would say when asked of the details of the Mukherjee-Bush meeting.

Yet another critical meeting that took place on Monday was the one-on-one dinner between Rice and Mukherjee in which the two top functionaries are supposed to have gone much beyond their brief interaction at Foggy Bottom earlier in the morning.

"We will continue to work on that agreement," Rice said at her morning interaction after meeting Mukherjee.

"The Indians are now in a process of working with the IAEA and we will follow that progress and we will have further discussions on that matter," she added.

Mukherjee is visiting Washington for the first time in his capacity as External Affairs Minister.