Emerging Asian giants edge closer

Wen was also expected to raise the issue of Tibet and the role of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, Chinese officials have said.

Wen began his Indian trip by first visiting Bangalore, India's information technology hub. He was received by Dharam Singh, the top elected official of southern Karnataka state. He didn't talk to reporters at the Bangalore airport.

Police prevented Tibetan activists, who oppose Beijing's rule in the Himalayan territory, from holding any protest demonstration against Wen's visit in Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka state.

On Saturday, police detained two Tibetan leaders to prevent them from organising Tibetans in the city and prevented 50 Tibetan students from leaving their college hostels to join the protest, a police officer said.

"This is preventive custody. Now we don't foresee any protest being organised," said S. Mariswamy, city police chief.

The visit comes as India seeks to improve relations with its larger neighbour, despite four decades of frosty relations, a brief border war, and a nascent rivalry. China is also a longtime ally and the main supplier of military hardware to Pakistan _ India's archrival.

"While there are differences between us, there is also an increasingly greater realisation that there is enough space and opportunity in the region for both India and China to prosper," India's External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh said on Friday.

China and India also compete on the economic front, and the Indian finance minister recently urged his country to take Beijing's lead and adopt reforms to attract foreign investment.

On Monday, Wen will hold talks with his Indian counterpart, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in the Indian capital.

The two leaders are expected to discuss a more than 50-year-old border dispute over their 1,030-kilometer (650-mile) border, parts of which are not demarcated.

Meanwhile, the dispute hasn't interfered with efforts to promote trade and closer economic cooperation between Beijing and New Delhi.

The two countries are readying nearly 30 agreements to promote political, economic and cultural ties. India is also keen that the two countries coordinate in bids for international economic contracts.

China Eastern Airlines is also likely to announce a new direct flight linking the business hubs Bombay and Shanghai. China is also keen on developing a free trade area between the two countries, which with their more than 2 billion population, would make it the biggest FTA in the world.