Prime Minister Narendra Modi has accepted the invitation from US President Barack Obama to visit Washington in September for bilateral discussions.

The visit is expected to pave the way for stronger India-US ties which have been somewhat rocky for some time.

Reports claim that September 30 has been suggested as the date for the meeting by United States, and India has asked for it to be advanced to September 26.

Meanwhile S Jaishankar, the Indian ambassador to the United States, is coming to New Delhi on June 8 for consultations with South Block and the prime minister's office (PMO). He will also brief PM Modi on the relationship and the future course.

The Modi-Obama takes special meaning in light of the fact that US had imposed a visa ban on then Gujarat chief minister in 2005 in connection with the Gujarat riots three years earlier.

The change in US approach started showing when in February, when its recently retired ambassador to India, Nancy Powell, went to Ahmedabad to meet Narendra Modi, then a PM candidate.

Then there was the thorny issue of the arrest and humiliation of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York over allegations of visa fraud, to which India reacted very sharply.

But there could be a meeting of minds on economic ties: Modi has spoken often of the need to make India?s diplomacy trade-focused, and wants big ticket investments from mega corporations like GE, IBM and Microsoft.

However, with the meeting between Modi and Obama, bilateral ties between the two nations are expected to improve.