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.”

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.