NEW DELHI, Feb 24: India and Afghanistan will boost their air links from March 27, when India Airlines will revive its Delhi-Kabul sector, official sources said on Thursday.

They said President Hamid Karzai and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had also discussed at their meeting here on Thursday prospects of bilateral trade, and even trilateral through Pakistan's land corridor, according to official sources.

President Karzai arrived on Wednesday, shortly after Indian and Pakistan commerce secretaries wound up their first discussions on ways to boost their own bilateral trade.

However, Pakistan's Commerce Secretary Tasneem Noorani was asked about the prospects of Pakistan allowing Indian trade exports to Afghanistan and he said the issue was a political one and had to be dealt with accordingly.

Apart from a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on cooperation in the field of civil aviation, which is aimed at building capacity and strengthening institutional structure of Afghanistan's civil aviation sector, the two countries also agreed on a slew of measures to boost business cooperation.

An MOU on cooperation in the field of media and information calls for greater interaction between media persons and radio and TV organizations of the two countries.

Under India's assistance programme, Government of India has completed the work on TV Satellite uplink at Kabul and donwlink at 10 provincial capitals in Afghanistan, which are already operational.

Afghan Energy Minister Mohammed Ismail and his Indian counterpart discussed possible Indian assistance for reconstruction and strengthening of Afghanistan's power system with the objective of making electricity available to the people of Afghanistan.

India has undertaken reconstruction of the Salma Dam Power Project that would generate 52MW of electricity. Afghanistan's Commerce Minister Hidayat Amin Arsala met Indian Commerce AND Industry Minister Kamal Nath. Mr Arasala invited Indian companies to invest in Afghanistan.

Both the Ministers noted the big increase in two-way trade between India and Afghanistan in recent years, which has increased from US$ 42 million in 2001-02 to US$ 186 million in 2003-04.