EU to intensify talks for FTA by 2008-end

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India and the European Union on Friday decided to put on the fast track the negotiations on an ambitious trade and investment agreement with the hope that the pact will be in place by the end of next year.

"We are engaged in negotiations over a broad-based trade and investment agreement with the EU. I am hopeful that by the next summit it will be in place," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at a joint press conference with Portugese Prime Minister Jose Socrates after the eighth India-EU Summit in New Delhi.

India, the world's second most populous nation with 1.1 billion people, and EU with a population of 500 million people have been negotiating a free trade agreement since October last year.

The two sides reviewed progress of negotiations at the Summit, which was dominated by discussions on expanding economic ties.

Socrates and Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, said discussions on the economic agreement remained the "the centerpiece" of the summit.

Having held several rounds of talks and after identifying common areas, as also the different positions, both the sides have come to an agreement that the pact should cover over 90 per cent of the bilateral trade.

"Both the sides want to recognise that the agreement must be ambitious and more broad-based," Socrates said.

A joint statement after the Summit said the two sides "welcomed the progress achieved in the first few rounds of negotiations on the India-EU Trade and Investment Agreement and reaffirmed commitment to further intensify negotiations".