NEW DELHI: India and Japan on Wednesday vowed to push for an economic partnership agreement by December, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged New Delhi to join Tokyo in the creation of an Asian "arc of freedom".

Abe, in India on a three-day visit, laid out his vision for a new four-way "arc of freedom and prosperity" bringing together Australia, India, Japan and the United States in a speech to a special session of the Indian parliament.

With China rising, Japan is pushing ahead with a strategic partnership in India and other nations, but New Delhi -- not keen on upsetting Beijing -- has said the initiative should not be seen as a "zero-sum game".

"A new broader Asia that broke away from geographical boundaries is now beginning to take on a distinct form," said Abe, who arrived in India on Tuesday, accompanied by 200 top Japanese executives.

"By Japan and India coming together in this way, this 'broader Asia' will evolve into an immense network spanning the entirety of the Pacific Ocean incorporating the United States of America and Australia," he said.

"Open and transparent this network will allow people, goods, capital and knowledge to flow freely," said the prime minister, ahead of a summit with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later Wednesday.

Abe also called for early conclusion of a "high quality economic partnership" with India and forecast a more than doubling of trade between the two nations to 20 billion US dollars in three years from eight billion currently.

Earlier, top Japanese and Indian commerce officials vowed to push for the partnership pact by year-end.

India's Commerce Minister Kamal Nath told business leaders from both nations that the focus of economic activity had shifted from west to east.

"India and Japan need to jointly meet the challenges of the new economic architecture," Nath said, adding he would work to ensure "this agreement by the end of the year."

Japanese officials welcomed Nath's pledge, adding they hoped to further Japanese investment in India, which currently stands at 520 million US dollars, as a result of Abe's trip.

Abe and Singh were to discuss a number of investment projects.

They include a 100-billion-US-dollar industrial corridor and freight link from the capital to the Arabian seaport of Mumbai, India's financial hub, with funding estimated at an unconfirmed 30 billion US dollars.

"The two leaders will reach further agreement this evening on how to further develop this project," said Masakazu Toyoda, a Japanese vice minister for economy and trade.

Japanese business officials hinted at announcements on investment later Wednesday, saying Japanese industries were looking to India not just for its huge domestic market, but as a future manufacturing and export base.

For its part, New Delhi is actively wooing Japanese investment in Indian infrastructure, with an estimated 320 billion US dollars needed over the next five years if India is to keep up its nine per cent growth rate.

Abe and Singh were also likely to discuss India's bid to join global civilian nuclear commerce after a gap of three decades.

Earlier this month India unveiled details of a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement with the United States, a pact requiring the approval of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which controls the sale of nuclear fuel and technology.

Japan is one of the countries in the group and the only nation ever attacked with atomic bombs.

The controversial deal has sparked a political crisis in India, with communist allies in Singh's coalition government demanding that it be scrapped.