Friends Abe, Modi seek business deals on India visit

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is looking to seal a deal on building India's first bullet train when he arrives in New Delhi later Friday for talks with counterpart and conservative soulmate Narendra Modi.

Abe is set to meet Indian business leaders in the capital before taking a tour with Modi on Saturday of India's holiest city of Varanasi and the prime minister's parliamentary constituency.

New Delhi and Tokyo are seeking to take advantage of a warm relationship between the two premiers that has only deepened, partly to counter China's growing rise, since Modi came to power last year.

Before leaving for Delhi on Friday, Abe told reporters that relations between Asia's second and third largest economies harbour great potential.

"I want to achieve results that will give a boost to the development of future Japan-India relations in the areas of high speed railways, security cooperation, and an agreement on the peaceful use of nuclear power," Abe said.

Several lucrative business deals are slated for discussion, according to officials, including a $15 billion agreement for Japan to provide a "Shinkansen" bullet train connecting the cities of Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

Modi has pledged to overhaul India's ramshackle railways and other infrastructure as part of ambitious reforms to revive the economy.

The pair are also expected to discuss a long-mooted civil nuclear deal that would allow Japan to export its nuclear plant technologies to the subcontinent.

Japan once shunned nuclear cooperation with India, which has not ratified the international nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but analysts say Tokyo has softened its stance in the face of China's growing influence in the region.