More than a week ago Dr Tharoor met United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns at an event in New York and asked him about reports in the Indian media alleging that Burns allegedly had a low opinion of him and implying that this was a reason why the US did not view favourably his candidacy.

Burns not only denied these reports but volunteered to express publicly his regard for Dr Tharoor that he had expressed privately and promised the Indian he would do so the next time he met with the Indian media.

On October 20, when Burns met with some members of the Indian media at the State Department to express the Bush administration's commitment to the civilian nuclear agreement and to discuss his forthcoming trip to India, when rediff.com brought up the question these media reports about his alleged low opinion of Dr Tharoor, Burns said he appreciated the opportunity to put the record straight.

"I am very happy to address that Aziz and thank you for giving me the opportunity to address it," he said. "We have the greatest respect for Shashi Tharoor. He is one of the most distinguished civil servants at the United Nations and one of its most highest ranking officials. I believe he has worked there since 1978."

"So he's a man with great experience, great vision," Burns added. "He has distinguished himself in his current position and in prior ones. We felt that he ran a very fine race and it was a very competitive race, specially at the end when there were several candidates."

He noted that "we were in touch with him throughout and had excellent discussions with him and so we congratulate him on having run a very good race."

Burns said "If you saw the straw polls that were released publicly, he did very well," and told rediff.com that he had wanted to say that "because I am aware that there have been some perhaps inaccurate stories in the Indian press, and I wanted to set the record straight."

"He is a very fine person," Burns reiterated, called Dr Tharoor "a friend," and predicted, "I think we will continue to have an excellent relationship with him."

Earlier, in an exclusive interview with rediff.com, his first after he quit the UN race, Dr Tharoor was also pained by reports that he had bowed out without consulting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [Images].

While lauding Dr Singh as "a very gracious man," Dr Tharoor said, "there is a canard being spread by some, frankly, dishonest journalists in Delhi [Images] that I had not consulted the prime minister in South Africa [Images] before issuing my statement. I just want to tell you on the record that I had consulted the prime minister in South Africa before issuing that statement. He has been fully understanding and fully supportive from start to finish."