Sonia to visit China to apply balm on strained ties

NEW DELHI:  Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi will visit China for five days as the two Asian giants seek to improve ties, officials said on Tuesday.   

Gandhi will leave on Wednesday for Beijing, her office said, where she was scheduled to meet with President Hu Jintao and top Chinese leaders, according to Indian media reports.    

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh -- under fire from the government's left-wing allies over the controversial nuclear pact with the United States -- is also expected to visit China later this year.   

Separately, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee was also slated to visit the Chinese city of Harbin for a trilateral meeting with his Chinese and Russian counterparts, the foreign ministry said.   

It will be the third trilateral meeting between the foreign ministers since 2005 to discuss issues of mutual interest. Gandhi's visit comes amid turmoil within her party over the nuclear accord, which has upset the government's left party coalition partners who disapprove of New Delhi's warming relations with the US.   

Gandhi's trip is seen as an effort to allay Chinese concerns over the government's growing partnership with Washington. Under the civilian atomic energy agreement with the US, India will get nuclear fuel and technology though it has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.   

Beijing has remained non-committal on support for the deal, which needs the approval of the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group. The Asian giants fought a brief but bitter war in 1962, and still have to resolve a border dispute that led to the conflict.   

But diplomatic ties between the neighbours have increased in recent years with bilateral visits and two-way trade approaching two billion dollars a month.