Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday hosted a private dinner for visiting US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle which was attended by political bigwigs, business leaders, actors and sports personalities. The Obamas drove to the 7, Race Course Road residence of Singh from ITC Maurya wher e they are staying. They were warmly welcomed by Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur.

The guests included UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, senior Union Ministers Pranab Mukherjee, A K Antony, P Chidambaram, S M Krishna and Sharad Pawar, senior BJP leader L K Advani and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

Top business leaders Azim Premji, Ratan Tata, Swati Piramal and N R Narayanamurthy were among the guests which also included Bollywood personalities Aamir Khan, Shabana Azmi and Javed Akthar.

Chess wizard Viswanathan Anand and Environmental Activist Sunita Narain were also present at the dinner.

Ahead of the dinner, Singh and Obama were closeted for a one-on-one meeting for about 25 minutes during which the two leaders were understood to have taken stock of bilateral ties and ways to push these to higher levels of strategic partnership.

The two leaders are believed to have taken an overview of the bilateral relations, which have grown substantially over the last few years.

Earlier in the day, Singh set aside protocol and went to the Indira Gandhi International airport to receive the US First Couple who arrived here on the second leg of the visit after a hectic 26-hour stay in Mumbai.