Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off his maiden visit to the United States as India's leader on Friday, facing an unwelcome reminder of his once-strained relations with his host nation: a lawsuit alleging he failed to stop anti-Muslim rioting in 2002.

Washington and New Delhi brushed off the suit brought in a U.S. court on the eve of Modi's arrival, saying it would not affect the visit, which includes an address at the U.N. General Assembly in New York and meetings with President Barack Obama.

However, it made for an awkward start to a trip aimed at revitalising a business and security relationship that both countries consider important, but which has been beset by peripheral squabbles and long failed to live up to its billing.