Chinese premier calls for tech axis with India

BANGALORE, India, Sunday (Reuters)

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited India's technology hub on Sunday and said the two Asian giants could team up to become world leaders in information technology.

Wen arrived in Bangalore on Saturday on a four-day visit to India aimed at easing a decades-old border dispute and boosting trade between the world's two most populous countries.

Wen visited Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest software exporter, at a gleaming technology park symbolising India's growing prowess in information technology (IT).

"It is true India has the advantage in software and China in hardware. If India and China cooperate in the IT industry, we will be able to lead the world...and it will signify the coming of the Asian century of the IT industry," he said.

Wen also visited the Indian Space Research Organisation, the Indian Institute of Science and the office of china's largest telecoms equipment maker, Huawei Technologies, that plans to invest $100 million in India.

Huawei, which employs 800 Indians and 30 Chinese in India, is a rare Chinese player among more than 1,200 software units in Bangalore.

Wen was scheduled to leave for Delhi later on Sunday.

Wen, on the last leg of a four-nation South Asian tour, said his Indian visit would hold "significance in history".

His visit symbolises both the rivalry and the cooperation between two of the world's fastest growing economies who are mulling a free trade area.