India and China to boost trade

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao unveiled a 10-point plan to double bilateral trade to US$40 billion by 2010 at an historic summit Tuesday and agreed to intensify efforts to resolve the border disputes that remain from the 1962 Sino-Indian war, AP reported. The summit was part of a four-day visit to India by Hu, the first by a Chinese president in a decade. The leaders signed more than a dozen bilateral agreements and pledged cooperation in the field of civilian nuclear energy. However, they failed to break new ground on long-standing issues like the presence of the Dalai Lama and 120,000 Tibetan exiles in India and China's role as the main weapons supplier to India's longtime rival, Pakistan. Hu leaves for Pakistan Thursday where he plans to sign agreements on trade, culture and education.