The Japanese State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Ichita Yamamoto on Monday met Singh, his counterpart and Minister of State for External Affairs Ajit Panja and Defence Minister George Fernandes.

This is the first high-level visit by a Japanese minister since New Delhi went nuclear last year in May and Tokyo reacted strongly by freezing its one billion-yen overseas development assistance to India.

Yamamoto is believed to have expressed his happiness about the fact that India was not tying its signature to the CTBT to its ratification by the US, official sources said, but also expressed disappointment that the US Senate had rejected the document.

Yamamoto, the junior foreign affairs minister of the newly elected Obuchigovernment in Tokyo, had recently visited Washington and had talks with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. His swing through the region now comes on the eve of the convening of the Japanese parliament at the end of the month, where a report on the world's position on the CTBT will have to be placed before the House.

The Japanese minister is leaving for Pakistan on Tuesday to meet the new military rulers of Islamabad. Sources here say that Gen. Musharraf seems to have assured the US that it could sign the CTBT independent of India doing so. If that is the line that will also be given to Yamamoto, relations between Pakistan and Japan could sooner than later return to even keel.

Japan seems to have taken it upon itself to lead the worldwide campaign in favour of the CTBT. But with its chief ally, the US, failing to ratify, Tokyo seems to have realised that New Delhi cannot be bulldozed into any such commitment either.

By now renewing Tokyo's invitation to invite Singh -- first made at the AseanRegional Forum meeting in July, which had been accepted but put off till the new government in New Delhi was elected -- Yamamoto seemed to be signalling a new warmth and a far more realistic position vis-a-vis India on nuclear and security issues.

It is not known whether Japan has also agreed to lift the bilateral economic sanctions imposed after the nuclear tests last year or removed its opposition to multilateral lending to India.

But perhaps as a quid pro quo to the new pragmatic Japanese position, New Delhi also seems to be playing down this aspect of the relationship.