Nicosia: Imparting a new dynamism to their bilateral relations, India and Cyprus on October 8 signed five agreements for cooperation in Information Technology, Science and Technology, telecommunications, health and cultural exchange and decided to intensify high-level political contacts and explore prospects of tie-ups in tourism and other diversified areas.

The agreements were signed in the presence of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides after the two leaders held one-to-one talks on a wide range of bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual concern. These were followed by talks at the delegation level.

Clerides later told reporters that India was fully entitled for a permanent seat in an expanded UN Security Council.

Terming Cyprus as a "time tested and valuable ally", Vajpayee said India remained committed to the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of this country.

He said the agreements signed today will "impart a new momentum in our bilateral relations".

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Information Technology and services will facilitate enhanced interaction in these sectors.

For the Indian IT sector, this is especially important due to the strategic location of Cyprus, its developed human resource base as also its imminent membership of the European Union.

A majority of the 2,000-strong Indian community in this country are software professionals and computer scientists. There are about 35,000 multi-national companies having their key offices here.

The MoU on Science and Technology (S&T) seeks to facilitate cooperation in this field with the possibility of commercial application in it.

Cyprus is interested in link-ups with India's achievements in S&T by offering Cypriot Business Incubators to Indian scientists. The MoU also provides for joint research and development projects and joint ventures in this sector.

The agreement in the fields of Posts and Electronic Communications provides for exchange of information in this sector to strengthen the existing postal services between the two countries.

In addition, emphasis has also been laid on improving electronic communication services by coordinating the use of E-communication technology and satellite services.

Information exchange on statistics, epidemics and spread of communicable diseases is outlined in the agreement on cooperation in Public Health and Medical Sciences.

Both sides have agreed to utilise the available training facilities and the services of experts with the overall objective of improving community health.

The two sides also agreed to revive the cultural exchange programme for a three-year period till 2005. This had been lying dormant for the past 10 years.

Both India and Cyprus are ancient civilisation with rich cultural heritages and it was felt that regular cultural exchanges under the framework of this programme would help enhance people-to-people contacts and lead to a better understanding of each other's culture and history.

PTI