Packed schedule awaits Manmohan Singh at Toronto

FRANKFURT - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to hold a series of bilateral meetings in Toronto Saturday and Sunday on the margins of the G-20 Summit, including those with his newly named counterparts - David Cameron of Britain and Naoto Kan of Japan.

The prime minister is scheduled to arrive at the Pearson International Airport in Toronto at 10.30 a.m. Saturday (8 p.m. India time) and will hold two bilateral meetings - one with Cameron and the other with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Later, after the G-20 working dinner, he is also scheduled to meet with the other leaders of the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia and China.

Sunday, too, is a packed day for Manmohan Singh. Apart from the opening plenary of the G-20 Summit, Manmohan Singh has meetings scheduled with the Japanese prime minister and US President Barack Obama, finally ending with a tete-a-tete with his host and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In fact, even on Monday, when he is scheduled to return to India, after an overnight technical halt at Frankfurt, the prime minister starts early with a meeting with the members of the Canadian parliament and members of Ontario legislative assembly, several of whom are of Indian origin.