How to merge two lists into a sequence of columns in python? [duplicate]

Question

Suppose I have two lists:

t1 = ["abc","def","ghi"]  
t2 = [1,2,3]

How can I merge it using python so that output list will be:

t =  [("abc",1),("def",2),("ghi",3)]

The program that I have tried is:

t1 = ["abc","def"]  
t2 = [1,2]         
t = [ ]  
for a in t1:  
        for b in t2:  
                t.append((a,b))  
print t

Output is:

[('abc', 1), ('abc', 2), ('def', 1), ('def', 2)]

I don't want repeated entries.