Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images] on Wednesday stepped out of his Race Course residence for the first time since after his heart surgery to visit the Rashtrapati Bhawan and spent half an hour with President Pratibha Patil [Images].

They exchanged the Holi greetings and discussed matters of national and international importance, the Prime Minister's Office said.

This was Dr Manmohan Singh's first outing, exactly after 70 days of his multiple heart surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences on January 24, besides his three trips to the hospital for check-up.

Only on Tuesday, he had spent another half an hour with girls from Delhi's [Images] Urdu schools whom he invited to his residence for interaction on the occasion of Milad-un-Nabi. He told them that the nation cannot prosper until women progress and girls get equal opportunities to study in schools and colleges.

The PMO sources said the prime minister had already started working from home, but the doctors have advised him that he can now move around as he is now perfectly normal. They said he is already planning a 4-day trip to London [Images] from April 1 to attend the G-20 nations' summit and seize the opportunity to also have the first face-to-face talks with US President Barack Obama [Images] on issues like terrorism and economy.