29 November 2004	Monday	16 Shawwal 1425

NEW DELHI, Nov 28: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet his Chinese and Japanese counterparts for bilateral talks during the two-day Asean summit starting in Vientiane on Monday, officials said on Sunday.

Dr Singh, who arrived in Laos on Sunday for the third Indo-Asean summit, will sign an agreement for peace, progress and shared prosperity, setting out the direction for India's relations with the Southeast Asian countries.

Officials declined to give details of the proposed talks Dr Singh will with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese counterpart Junichiro Koizumi, but a briefing on his recent meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is on the cards.

Under the trilateral cooperation framework with Myanmar and Thailand, India is committed to developing a highway linking these three countries and providing vital road link to the rest of the Asean.

The proposed New Delhi-Hanoi rail link, though still on the drawing board stage, would further augment the much-needed physical connectivity, which is an essential pre-requisite for the success of India's 'Look East' policy, officials said. It would also facilitate the development of the India's remote and violence-wracked Northeast region.