PM to meet Blair on Oct 10 at Indo-British Summit

London, Oct 6 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to meet his British counterpart Tony Blair on October 10 and discuss a host of issues including terrorism, details of Pakistan's involvement in the July 11 Mumbai serial train blasts and future of the Doha world trade negotiations.

The focus of the Summit will be on ''enhancing bilateral trade and investment along with exploring possibilities of collaboration in energy and climate change projects''.

Mr Adam Thomson, DirectorSouth Asia Desk in the Foreign office did not say whether the role of the ISI in the Mumbai blasts will feature in the talks. However, he said, ''Both India and Britain have suffered mass attacks on their public transport. India is holding the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and we are staging the Olympics in 2012. Both are highly vulnerable to terror attacks.'' He said it is vital to continue to exchange information, jointly deal with terrorism and discuss security checks.

The two Prime Ministers are likely to discuss cooperation in areas of economic cooperation and also work out strategies for sustainable development, monitoring of progress and direction of the UK-India Research Initiative (UKRI).

Mr Thomson said the UKRI investments in various areas including retail, legal services and financial services, healthcare and infrastructure development are likely to be discussed during the Summit.

''We hope that at the end of the one-day Summit, substantial focus on economic relations will emerge and hopefully there will be a few contract signings,'' he said.

When asked whether Britain will provide clean coal technology to India at a rate which will be affordable, he said obstacles in the way of transferring the cost-efficient technology will in all likelihood be discussed.

Britain was a major player in the UN Johannesburg agenda and so was India among the developing countries, he added.

While the meetings of Prime Ministers and their aides shall continue at Downing Street, business and financial institution leaders will be holding discussions at Lancaster House. Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath will meey Trade Secretary Alistair Darling at Lancaster House. It is expected that the business community fron both the countries will will try to iron out problems in investments and collaborations.

Dr Singh will have separate meetings with Chancellor Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett.

Mr Thomson said, ''At the end of the last Summit held at New Delhi, it was jointly declared that the India-UK relations have never been that strong as of now, but we now expect the declaration at the end of this Summit to say relations are more stronger, deeper and wider.'' UNI XC AK HS1715