From correspondents in West Bengal, India, 01:01 AM IST

Bhutanese Prime Minister Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y. Thinley Monday categorically ruled out the existence of any anti-India insurgent group in his country ever since the Royal Bhutan Army conducted a successful operation in 2003 to flush out ultras from within its territory.

'There are no such elements or individuals in Bhutan. We have flushed them out. Since the operation flushout was launched in 2003 there is no such single individual or element in our territory,' Thinley, who arrived here on his four-day to India, told reporters in the evening.

Six years back, led by then monarch Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the Royal Bhutan Army had driven out activists of three armed Indian separatist groups - United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), and Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO).

The insurgents had clandestinely entered and established camps in the dense forests of southern Bhutan bordering India.

Thinley admitted that Nepali Maoist elements had infiltrated into refugee camps that have been set up in Nepal for Bhutanese of Nepali origin.

'We have heard that there has been infiltration of Maoist elements in the camps but that is something that is not good. Not even for the members of the camp itself,' he added.

Thinley maintained that Bhutan was not feeling threatened by China's emergence as a superpower.

'China is not eating into our territory. We are not a large country. If they do something we will surely feel the pain,' he said.

'We have undefined borders on our north with China and we have engaged with China for the delimitation process since 1984. The negotiations continue. But due to these undefined borders some times nomadic people stray across the borders from both sides going after their yaks. We are very guarded about this,' Thinley added.

Thinley is the first head of a foreign state to visit India during the second tenure of the Manmohan Singh government and he is slated to arrive in New Delhi Tuesday.

Thinley will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday and discuss an entire array of bilteral issues, including expanding economic and trade ties and development partnership between the two countries.

He is also set to meet President Pratibha Patil, Congress chief and ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)