Bilateral trade between China and India recorded an all-time high of $24.9 billion in 2006, achieving the target two years ahead of schedule, the Chinese ministry of commerce announced in Beijing today.

China and India, which have been recording their highest growth rate, had signed an agreement in 2005 to raise the bilateral trade volume to $20 billion by 2008.

India emerged China''s 10th largest trade partner in 2006, while China was India''s second largest trade partner after the US. A decade ago trade between the two was around $250 million, which in 2000 surged to $2.91 billion and by 2005 had soared to $18.7 billion.

In November 2006, visiting Chinese president Hu Jintao and prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh said the two countries would endeavour to double their trade with each other to $40 billion a year by 2010 and encourage two-way investment flows.

As a symbol of their closer trade ties, the two countries reopened cross-border trade at the Nathu La Pass in Sikkim in July last year, after a gap of 44 years.

A Goldman Sachs report says India will overtake the US to become the world''s second largest economy, after China, by 2042.