US Under Secretary of State for Commerce Kenneth Juster was holding talks with Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and would later meet National Security Adviser J. N. Dixit, Indian and US officials said.

Juster would also meet India's Commerce Secretary S.N. Menon during his two-day visit, the officials said.

The aim of the talks is to find ways to improve ties in the high-tech trade, defence and civilian nuclear sectors and in space programmes, an Indian official said.

On September 17, Washington announced it was lifting nuclear export controls on Indian organisations after New Delhi assured US officials they would address American non-proliferation concerns.

The move was the latest easing of sanctions imposed on New Delhi after it declared itself a nuclear power in 1998.

Those sanctions resulted in a freeze on exchanges in nuclear and other high-tech sectors such as "dual-use technology" which finds applications in both civilian and military use.

Along with lifting the controls, Washington said it would ease export licensing policies to expand bilateral cooperation in commercial space programs.

The deal was the first phase under the "Next Steps In Strategic Partnership With India" agreed in January between President George W. Bush and Singh's predecessor Atal Behari Vajpayee.

During the talks with Juster, India will ask the United States to withdraw sanctions it had imposed recently against two Indian scientists accused by Washington of selling technology for weapons of mass destruction to Iran, a report said Monday.

New Delhi would also ask Washington to remove the subsidiaries of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from its list of embargoed units, the Times of India reported.

"We are looking for a more symmertrical relationship with the US," the report quoted foreign secretary Shyam Saran as saying.

To address US concerns on proliferation, India was willing to allow Washington to appoint an export control attache at its embassy in New Delhi, the report added.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.