A United States Consulate will start functioning in Hyderabad from 2008.

It will initially be located at Paigah Palace, the temporary accommodation provided by Andhra Pradesh government, before shifting permanently near the Hitec City at Madhapur.

The Consulate will take possession of Paigah Palace, where offices of the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority were functioning, in August and a lease agreement in this regard will be signed soon.

A top level US delegation on Thursday called on Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy at the Secretariat.

The chief minister said that since 40 per cent of those applying for visas in the US Consulate in Chennai are from Andhra Pradesh, the opening of the US Consulate in Hyderabad will be beneficial both to Andhra Pradesh and the US.

Mark Fry, consular section chief, US Consulate, Chennai, who welcomed the chief minister on his forthcoming short visit to US, said that in places like California, Telugu is a most-talked language and pointed out that he learned 'Namaskaramandi' from California.

Reddy said every third person in Silicon Valley was an Indian and among them every fourth person was Telugu-speaking. He assured all help and assistance from the state government in opening the US Consulate as soon as possible in Hyderabad.