New Delhi, Mar 19 (IANS): Ahead of the hearing on the custody row involving two NRI children, two senior Indian officials are expected to leave for Norway later this week.

The two-member team is expected to comprise a legal expert and a senior official of the external affairs ministry, official sources said. They have been instructed to go to Norway by External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and will attend the custody hearing on March 23.

India has been upping the pressure on Norway to speed up the return of the children who were taken away from their NRI parents on grounds of alleged negligence and emotional disconnect.

Amid public outrage and protests by the opposition, India last month sent special envoy Madhusudhan Ganapathi, secretary (West) in the external affairs ministry to Norway, to urge Norwegian authorities to find a solution to enable an early return of the children to India.

Three-year-old Abhigyan and one-year-old Aishwarya, children of Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya, an NRI couple living in Stavanger, Norway, were taken under protective care by Barnevarne (Norwegian Child Welfare Services) last May on the ground that they were not being looked after properly by their parents

Over a month ago, India and Norway struck an agreement under which the parents named Anurup's brother Arunabhash Bhattacharya as the primary caretaker of the two children. Arunabhash Bhattacharya is currently in Norway.