NEW DELHI, Nov 23: Senior European Union officials on Friday held a summit meeting with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, with Afghanistan and bilateral trade at the top of the agenda.

The high-level EU delegation in New Delhi was led by Belgian Prime Minister Guy Vehorfstadt, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, and included European Commission President Romano Prodi.

The summit is an important step forward in the bilateral relations of the 15-member EU with India, an European Commission statement said.

It is being seen as a signal of the growing importance the EU attaches to its relations with India.

In a speech to Indian and EU businessmen before his meeting with Prodi and Vehorfstadt, Vajpayee said the business community had a responsibility to make whatever contribution they can to defeat the forces of terrorism and extremism following the September 11 attacks on the US.

The fallout of the events of September 11, has worsened the slowdown in the global economy, he said, adding that many sectors of global industry around the world had felt its “direct impact” with tens of thousands of people losing their jobs.

A selective and piecemeal approach will not work, he warned.

Even before September 11, India had been in regular dialogue with countries of the European Union to apprise them on how we have suffered greatly from terrorism orginating in our neighbourhood. Our intensified interaction in the past two months has produced an appreciable convergence in our perspectives on terrorism, he said.

Moving on to last week’s World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting, Vajpayee said there was “a strong perception” among developing countries that they have not got all the anticipated gains from globalisation.

This is the perspective that guided India’s participation in the just concluded WTO meeting, he said.

Vajpayee appealed to European business representatives at the meeting to be patient with India’s pace of economic liberalisation saying the need for consensus in a democracy may entail some compromise on the speed of reforms.

But once laws were passed they had the advantage of being “durable,” he added.

India is engaged in a sustained effort to move towards a more open trading regime and greater integration with the global economy, Vajpayee said.

After his speech, Vajpayee was holding talks with Vehorfstadt and Prodi.

Earlier this week Guy Trouveroy, Belgium’s ambassador in New Delhi said bilateral relations would be “item number one” on the agenda, which would also include trade and the WTO meeting.

The EU is the South Asian country’s biggest trading partner, accounting for 30 percent of India’s imports and exports. It is also traditionally India’s largest source of foreign direct investment.

The EU was Friday expected offer a 200 million euro (176 million dollar) grant for education programmes in India.

European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said in New Delhi on Wednesday that the EU would also sign an agreement with India on greater cooperation on science and technology and a joint vision statement on information technology.—AFP