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BEIJING,Wednesday (AFP) India officially recognized Tibet as a part of China as the two neighbours tried to close the door on long-standing disputes and chart a new relationship.

Ties between the Asian giants have for decades been plagued by tensions over issues such as Tibet and the two countries fought a bitter border conflict in 1962.

But a joint declaration signed by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who is visiting China, and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, said India for the first time explicitly recognized Tibet as a part of China, according to a copy of the declaration released by the official Chinese news agency Xinhua late Tuesday.

As India is home to some 100,000 Tibetans who have fled China and provides the base for the Tibetan government-in-exile, the move could relieve a significant source of tension between New Delhi and Beijing. China in turn agreed to open trade with India through the border state of Sikkim in northeastern India - in what some saw as tacit recognition by Beijing of India's sovereignty over Sikkim.

But in an indication the two countries still have some way to go before resolving points of contention, neither conceded there was a change in its policy - India on Tibet or China on Sikkim.

China's foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan called India's recognition of Tibet as Chinese territory "an important and positive expression."

But in a news briefing later Tuesday, India's External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said India's stated position on Tibet in the declaration does not amount to a change in policy. "India's position on Tibet has been consistent.

And that continues to be the position today also," he said. Under the declaration, India reiterated it will not allow Tibetans to conduct anti-China activities on its soil. Sinha said that stance was also consistent with India's Tibet policy. He added there was also no change in India's policy of allowing the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile to remain in India. "India regards his Holiness the Dalai Lama as a religious leader. I'd like to say there's no change in the position here," Sinha said.

India's stance had been that it acknowledged the suzerainty of China over Tibet, meaning it controls Tibet but allows it internal autonomy.

Both sides hailed Vajpayee's visit, the first by an Indian premier to China in a decade, as marking both sides' determination to improve relations. "Your current visit to China has also shown very clearly to the international community that China and India, the two most populous countries in the world, are determined to further advance the good neighbourly, friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation and relations forward," Chinese President Hu Jintao told the Indian leader at the Great Hall of the People Tuesday.

Vajpayee described his meetings with China's top leaders as "excellent".

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