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NEW DELHI, Feb 3 (AFP) - France wants deeper ties and a strategic partnership with India, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said in an interview Monday.

Raffarin is to arrive in India this week on his first official visit outside Europe since he took office last year.

"Since I was appointed prime minister, the president (Jacques Chirac) insisted that I make India my first major trip," he told the Hindu newspaper.

That "speaks of our conviction that India has a major role to play in the world today and underlines our desire to develop a strategic partnership with India," he said.

Raffarin will visit India's IT capital Bangalore on Thursday and hold talks with political leaders on Friday in New Delhi. He will also launch a programme of French cultural events across the country.

He is leading a delegation of more than 170 people including the ministers for economy, transport and research and science.

"My personal objective is to deepen our ties, particularly in the economic and commercial fields," Raffarin said.

Bilateral trade stands at roughly one billion dollars a year.

French and Indian defence sources said last month the two countries would soon sign an agreement worth two billion dollars to build six Scorpene submarines in India and deliver 36 missiles from a European consortium.

The French are also hoping for a deal between the state-run domestic carrier Indian Airlines (IA) and European air giant Airbus.

Last year IA approved a massive deal for 43 Airbus A320s, but the decision has come into question amid pressure from Airbus' US rival Boeing and American officials.

Indian officials are privately rejoicing that Raffarin will only visit India and not, like most foreign dignitaries, make a stop in arch-enemy neighbour Pakistan, which New Delhi accuses of sponsoring terrorism in disputed Kashmir.

The French prime minister said France condemned terrorist acts and their authors "whatever their motivations."

He said Pakistan had made commitments to fight terrorism.

"It is in its interest and its responsibility to respect these commitments, whether it concerns internal terrorism or the use of its territory for attacks elsewhere," he said.

Raffarin also praised the "secular nature of the Indian state" saying it was part of what gave the country the "prestige and authority it enjoys today". 

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