Noting that Russian nuclear technology is internationally competitive, India on Wednesday said it would like to expand its cooperation in the field as it has major plans to increase the share of nuclear power in its energy mix.

Ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to India on Thursday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the Russian media that India-Russia strategic partnership is unique and has no other parallel of two giant nations maintaining steady and unbroken friendship over decades.

The prime minister also talked about increasing the trade volume and transforming the nature of economic ties and expressed concern over religious extremism and terrorism in its neighbourhood.

On the nuclear issue, the prime minister expressed India's interest in expanding nuclear cooperation with Russia, which is presently building two nuclear power plans in Kudankulam.

"Russian nuclear power technology is internationally competitive. Since we have major plans to increase the share of nuclear power in our energy mix, there are concrete opportunities for cooperation in this area. We would also like this cooperation to expand in years to come," he said.

The Russian President is arriving in New Delhi on Thursday for the seventh Indo-Russian summit during which nuclear cooperation between the two countries will be high on the agenda. A number of bilateral agreements are expected to be signed during the visit.

Putin had in an interview to PTI said that Russia intended to help India directly in the construction of atomic energy facilities for peaceful use.

Touching upon bilateral issues, Dr Singh said while relations between other major powers have witnessed numerous upheavals, 'relations between India and Russia have weathered radical changes in the international system as well as political and socio-economic changes within the two countries.'

Dr Singh attributed this largely to compatibility of India and Russia's geo-political as well as national interests. "This deep and durable understanding between India and Russia is manifest today in our shared thinking that international peace and stability can be better maintained in a multi-polar world," he said.

The declaration of strategic partnership between India and the Russian Federation, signed during President Putin's visit to India in October 2000, takes a long-term view of our multi-faceted relationship, unaffected by tactical, or short-term, considerations, the prime minister noted.

Dr Singh said India-Russia strategic partnership is a factor for promoting peace, security and stability not only within the region but also globally. He also expressed concern over the rise of religious extremism and terrorism.

"Our neighbourhood provides the biggest infrastructure for perpetrating terrorism, religious extremism and drug trafficking the world over. We have, therefore, a profound interest in controlling these dangerous forces for the benefit of the international community, as well as for ensuring our internal security," Dr Singh said, pointing to the Indo-Russian strategic partnership's anti-terror dimension.

Asked about expectations from the summit meeting, the prime minister said, "President Putin's visit will add to the strategic content of our relations, particularly on the economic side, through a number of documents we hope to conclude during the visit."

"This is the first time that a Russian leader has been invited to be the chief guest at the Republic Day function, and we are delighted that President Putin will be with us on this occasion," he said adding, "in him we have a very sincere friend of our country."

The prime minister told the Russian media that New Delhi and Moscow have agreed to impart dynamism to their bilateral trade to triple it by 2010 to the tune of $10 billion.

The current 'comparatively small' trade turnover of $3 billion is the fallout of the Soviet collapse as the ex-USSR was one of the biggest trading partners of India.     

"India now has to compete with other commercial interests in the Russian market, and vice versa. While our respective volumes of trade with other countries are growing, our bilateral trade is not showing the same dynamism. We are not satisfied with this and are determined to reverse this phenomenon and we have set a target of raising this to $10 billion by 2010," Dr Singh said.

However, he cautioned that achieving $10 billion bilateral trade turn-over by 2010 will not be easy and both India and Russia would need to work hard and innovatively to more than triple the volume in four years.   

"As since the Soviet collapse Russia's economy has opened to the outside world and India has also greatly liberalised its economy. The implication of this is that the State in both our countries is no longer an arbiter of trade between the two countries, and decisions on what and how much to buy are taken on a commercial basis," Dr Singh said.