Krishna said India attached importance to its relations with Australia and was 'committed to further strengthening and expanding our relations to cover virtually every area of interaction'.

'Both sides feel that significant further scope exists for expanding our trade as well as cooperation in areas such as science and technology, information and communication technology, energy, education, tourism and agro-industry,' he said.

Saying that India and Australia are looking to take their relations to a 'strategic partnership', Krishna noted they were 'looking at the possibility of discussing a Free Trade Agreement which would further boost our ties'.

Krishna said India was looking forward to the visit of Prime Minister Rudd and Foreign Minister Smith later this year.