New Delhi: The European Union (EU) today (Oct 29, 2004) said that it was keen on establishing a strategic partnership with India and for this it will launch an action plan for promoting unilateralism, fighting terrorism and furthering economic growth and development.

Specific areas of cooperation will be taken up for an in-depth discussion during the upcoming Indo-EU summit in The Hague on Nov 8 to be attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"We will be working on the precise substance of cooperation during the summit in The Hague and the objective is that the strategic partnership takes the shape of an Action Plan and Political Declaration by the next summit in 2005", Director General, External Relations, European Commission Eneko Landaburu told a press conference.

The strategic partnership is the highest form of relations the EU has with any other country and only five nations have such a relationship with the region. These are the US, Canada, Japan, Russia and China.

He said both sides will be making concrete proposals for the partnership during the summit but four broad areas for possible cooperation are multilateralism, trade, development and interaction among civil societies.

"I cannot comment on the substance of the agreement at this stage. Let us see the level of ambition of both sides, the Action Plan should be ready in a year's time," he said.