By Nandita Bose, Trevor Hunnicutt and David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) -India and the U.S. agreed on Thursday to start talks to clinch an early trade deal and resolve their standoff over tariffs as New Delhi promised to buy more U.

President Trump greeted the Indian Prime Minister at the White House with a bear hug and called him “a great friend of mine.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the United States President Donald Trump have spoken about easing tariffs and resolving trade concerns between the two countries, while also shoring up defense

India and the U.S. will work to more than double bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a joint press conference with U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday.

U.S. President Donald Trump and India's Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed issues ranging from weapons sales to trade when they met in Washington on Thursday but in public remarks avoided the sensitive subjects of human rights and minority abuses.

US President Trump has announced a deal with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Delhi to import more US oil and gas to shrink the trade deficit between the two countries. "They're going to be purchasing a lot of our oil and gas. They need it. And we have it," Trump said at a joint news briefing in Washington.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be holding his first bilateral meeting with United States President Donald Trump on February 13 even as both sides are expected to talk tough on trade while Washington will be keen to take up the matter concerning the renewal of Defence Cooperation Framework for the next 10 years,