MARSEILLE, France (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the EU presidency, on Monday met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a summit focused on global warming, terrorism and the global financial crisis.

Singh, arriving in France from the US whose House of Representatives passed a major atomic energy pact with New Delhi, met Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in the southern port of Marseille.

The leaders were due to give a joint press conference after meeting privately for around an hour at the annual EU-India summit.

The European Union is India's largest commercial partner -- ahead of China -- with annual bilateral trade totalling around 60 billion euros (88 billion dollars).

But India ranks only ninth behind South Korea in the EU's list of major trading partners -- a position French European Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Jouyet described last week as "abnormal."

India and the EU have had a strategic partnership agreement since 2004 and talks on a free trade accord began last year, but progress has been slow.

Europe wants to boost ties with the emerging Asian giant, which is seen as a relative haven of stability in an often volatile region which includes Pakistan and Afghanistan.

  Add comment

Name:
E-Mail:
Comment:
Enter code: