New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh goes to Cebu City in the Philippines on Saturday on a three-day visit to attend the India-ASEAN and East Asian summits that will energise India's growing economic and strategic ties with the region. Intensification of economic relations, negotiations for a Free Trade Area (FTA) agreement, enhanced cooperation in areas of entrepreneurship development, English language training and information technology will be key themes of the India-ASEAN summit to be held on Sunday.

"Some bilateral meetings are also being worked out," N. Ravi, Secretary (East) in the external affairs ministry, told reporters ahead of the two summits that are going to shape the contours of intra-regional economic and cultural linkages in building the emerging East Asian architecture. Manmohan Singh is likely to meet his counterparts from China, Japan, the Philippines and Australia on the sidelines of the two summits.

A declaration on energy security that will focus on cost-effective efficient utilisation of energy and exploration of alternate sources of energy like bio-diesel will be issued at the end of the second East Asia Summit that will be attended by leaders of 10 ASEAN countries, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Besides energy security, education, financial cooperation, ways to control aviation influenza and natural disaster management will be other key themes of the East Asia summit, Ravi said. Ahead of Manmohan Singh's visit, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will fly to Cebu from Male on Wednesday. Over the next two days, he will attend the ministerial meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and a meeting of the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation project where India will be assuming the chairmanship of this regional grouping.

The Mekong-Ganga Cooperation is a regional grouping comprising India and five ASEAN nations namely Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar to increase cooperation in tourism, culture and education. The six countries are planning to develop transportation networks, including the East-West Corridor project and the trans-Asian highway.

Early this week, Manmohan Singh underlined India's "commitment to increased economic interaction between India and the economies of East and South-East Asia." "We would also like to be a member of the wider Asian Economic Community. This requires greater openness on our part," he told business leaders at the 79th Annual General Meeting of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

Commerce Minister Kamal Nath will also be going to the Philippines for the economic ministers meeting of the ASEAN. As India and ASEAN negotiate an FTA, differences over a negative list of products continue to persist. India has offered to prune this list to 490 from 563, but the ASEAN is insisting that New Delhi prunes the negative list to 387 products. (IANS)