Japanese PM leaves for India on bilateral co-op

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday left for India for a three-day trip in a move to enhance bilateral cooperation in economic and security fields.

Abe is expected to hold talks with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh later the day to discuss bilateral cooperation on nuclear power, which the Japanese leader eyes as an major factor to boost his country's exports.

The two countries agreed in May when they met in Tokyo that civil nuclear cooperation talks suspended after the Fukushima nuclear crisis would be resumed.

Abe also aimed to improve Japan's export of infrastructural technology and equipment to the Southern Asian country.

Local reports said that the Japanese leader will announce the decision to provide around 200 billion yen (about 2 billion U.S. dollars) in loans to India to finance building a subway system in New Delhi.

Abe was accompanied by Japanese business leaders and he visited India in 2007 during his first time as prime minister.