President Lee Myung-bak and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday held a summit in New Delhi and agreed to upgrade their relations to a "strategic partnership" from the current "long-term cooperative partnership for Peace and Prosperity."

The two leaders agreed to work together to increase the two-way trade to 30 billion U.S. dollars by 2014 as the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) took effect on January first this year. Bilateral trade stood at eleven billion dollars last year.

Lee and Singh also agreed to starts talks to sign a pact on nuclear technology cooperation. The Seoul government wants to participate in India's construction of new nuclear power plants.

Lee asked for the Indian leader's support for South Korea's bid to participate in New Delhi's project to replace its aging Air Force trainer fleet. Seoul is hoping to export 60 KT-1 trainer jets. India is planning to conduct a bid for the 500-million-dollar project this year with a view to place orders in the first half of next year.

After their summit, the two leaders attended a ceremony for signing agreements on inmate repatriation, cooperation in information technology, science and the peaceful use of space.

The two sides also agreed to create a ten-million-dollar fund to finance the activities of their joint science and technology committee.

In addition, they agreed to designate 2011 as "Korea Year" in India and "India Year" in Korea to boost civilian exchange.