NEW DELHI, March 13: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday that ties with Pakistan had improved under his watch and there was in fact a climate of reconciliation between the two countries.

Dr Singh, who was addressing an international audience at a business seminar, said his country's external relations with immediate neighbours "have improved significantly" as they had with all major countries.

"We are moving forward on our dialogue with Pakistan and there certainly is a climate of reconciliation," Dr Singh said at the discussion hosted by The Economist magazine.

Without mentioning India's difficulties with Pakistan over bilateral trade, Dr Singh said liberalised business exchanges were beneficial to everyone."Regional and free trade agreements help us speed up trade liberalisation and move closer to meeting our multilateral commitments," he said.—Correspondent