India and Australia Monday signed a trade and economic framework (TEF) to expand bilateral commercial ties in sectors like mining, infrastructure education, tourism and biotechnology.

"The TEF will encourage closer strategic cooperation in key sectors with outstanding potential like energy and mining, infrastructure development and information technology," said Australian Prime Minister John Howard at the Australia-India Business Forum Meeting held here Monday.

"The trade and economic framework will provide an avenue to interact in a more focused manner and to identify the areas where we could harness the complementarities of the two countries," said Kamal Nath, Indian Commerce Minister, at the same occasion.

The framework eyes industries such as energy, mining, infrastructure development, education, tourism, entertainment, bio- technology as well as traditional areas of textile and agriculture. The framework will assist private companies of both countries to seek business opportunities in these fields.

Howard, who arrived here Sunday on a four-day visit, is accompanied by a high-profile business delegation from industries like finance, renewable energy and infrastructure that will explore investment opportunities in India. He will also visit Mumbai and Chennai.

The Australian delegation will also sign pacts in the aviation sector and a memorandum of understanding in the field of customs.

The bilateral trade stood at over 4 billion U.S. dollars last year, with an annual growth of 20 percent, while India ranked as Australia's 6th biggest export market.

Australia is the eighth largest investor in India with a net investment of 1 billion U.S. dollars.

The two sides also signed a Memorandum of Understanding about defense cooperation here Monday. It covers cooperation in exchange of views on security and defense related matters, training, maritime cooperation, defense industries and defense research and development.

The MoU also said that India and Australia will set up Joint Working Group on defense for guiding and monitoring the on-going defense cooperation.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was expected to talk with Howard about changing Australia's policy of banning uranium sale to India though no official statement has mentioned the topic.

Source: Xinhua