By Manish Chand

New Delhi, Sep 4 (IANS): Amid dissonance in relations with China, India is looking to expand strategic and economic ties with Japan as the two sides hold the final round of negotiations next week to finalise a key economic pact ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Tokyo in October.

Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar is expected to travel to Tokyo Tuesday to hold a final round of negotiations on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) with Japan, well-placed sources told IANS.

The pact, called Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) in Japan, is expected to slash tariff duties on around 9,000 products, ranging from steel and apparel to drugs and machinery, and give a big boost to bilateral trade which

was estimated to be around $11 billion in 2008-09.

The two sides are keen to clinch the pact well in time before Manmohan Singh travels to Tokyo for the annual summit with his Japanese counterpart Naoto Kan, likely Oct 25-27.

Manmohan Singh's visit to Tokyo will be keenly watched in Beijing that sees both a rising India and Japan, which it overtook as the world's second largest economy recently,as rivals and competitors in the Asian hemisphere.

Beijing has taken note of the recent launch of negotiations for a bilateral nuclear pact between India and Japan, a breakthrough of sorts given Tokyo's past aversion to doing nuclear business with any country outside the fold of

the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Significantly, the China threat perception figured in discussions between External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and his Japanese counterpart Katsuya Okada a fortnight ago. The Japanese side spoke of its unease about the opaqueness of China's military spending and stressed the need for transparency during discussions, top sources said. India shared

this sense of unease, the sources added.

The recent Chinese aggressiveness on issues critical to India's sovereignty like the denial of visa to a senior Indian Army officer on grounds that his command included Jammu and Kashmir has revived the spectre of the China threat in India.

The reports of the presence of 11,000 Chinese troops in Pakistan-administered Kashmir has further fuelled anxiety in New Delhi, which has already conveyed concerns to Beijing over the issue.

The incident has also prompted India to pursue a more robust Look East policy to position itself as a democratic alternative to China in the East Asian region, which will hold the regional summit in Hanoi October-end.

Against this backdrop, although Indian officials maintain India's relations with Japan are independent of its ties

with China, New Delhi and Tokyo have been quietly giving a strategic orientation to their relationship.

Two months ago, India and Japan held two back-to-back separate dialogues that discussed a wide array of issues, including counter-terrorism, jointly combating piracy and UN reforms, to give more heft to their strategic partnership.

With an eye on Beijing's growing clout in Africa, the Japanese foreign minister sought India's cooperation in starting talks with African countries to push forward UN Security Council reforms when he visited India last month.

The subtle message was not lost on China.