Japanese PM calls on President Pratibha Patil

Visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday called on President Prathibha Patil.

New Delhi, Aug 22 : Visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday called on President Prathibha Patil.

The Japanese premier is on a three-day visit to India designed to improve strategic relations between Tokyo and New Delhi and boost trade with a booming economy.

Earlier in the day, Abe, while addressing Indian parliamentarians, called for a "broader Asia" partnership of democracies that would include India, the United States and Australia, but leave out the region's superpower, China.

India is using his visit to woo much-needed investments to build infrastructure projects from transport to civilian nuclear power.

The aim is to boost Indian manufacturing by helping make use of its cheap workforce while solving one of the bugbears of India's economy -- its poor infrastructure and transportation.

Japan is India's tenth-largest trade partner, as Japan's firms have focused on China and Southeast Asia.

The visit comes just as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh faces a huge political crisis as Leftist allies tried to block a civilian nuclear deal with the United States that the government and many business leaders says is crucial for India's economy.

And while Singh was expected to seek Japan's support for a controversial nuclear energy deal with the United States, Abe was likely to remain non-committal, given the sensitivity of the issue in Japan.

ANI