Returning from what could be her last official India visit during which the much awaited signing of the nuclear deal could not materialise, a clearly emotional US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice [Images] said she wished to have stayed longer in New Delhi [Images].

"I look forward to an opportunity to go to Kazakhstan, after having had a very nice trip to India. I just wish I could have stayed longer in India," Rice told media persons on board her aircraft.

Asked if there had been any discussion with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on the role India and Kazakhstan could play together in Afghanistan in terms of economic reconstruction, she said, "We did talk about the important regional links between India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia."

"If you think about that as a sort of north-south or south-north corridor, obviously for Afghanistan, in particular, to succeed, it's going to have to be regionally integrated," Rice replied according to a transcript released by the State Department in Washington.

Asked if the issue energy, in particular, whether India could get Uranium from Kazakhstan was discussed, she replied in the negative.

"We didn't talk about that issue."

She said Afghanistan has always been strongest, economically, when it was regionally integrated.

"I think we don't think in terms of land bridges any more in the modern economy, but it still has critical links to its neighbours in the region," she added.

During her day-long stay in New Delhi, Rice said the US' ties with India during the Bush administration have been one of the "very strongest" her country has forged with other nations. After the Congressional approval to the nuclear deal, it was widely expected that Rice would ink the pact during her visit but India insisted that President George W Bush [Images] first sign the legislation.