Mumbai: India and China will sign five agreements, including a pact between the two state-run railways, during prime minister Manmohan Singh's visit to China next week.

The two countries are also expected to sign accords covering sectors like housing, geo-sciences, land resource management and traditional medicine.

The prime minister, scheduled to leave on a three-day visit to China on Saturday, will try to boost contacts between the two Asian giants, information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi said.

"The memorandum of understanding covering the rail sector will promote cooperation between the Chinese and the Indian railways," the minister said.

Dasmunshi said the pact on land management would aim to boost bilateral cooperation "based on the principles of equality, mutual benefit and reciprocity" on "land administration, resettlement and rehabilitation."

He also said the pact on traditional medicine would provide a legal framework to jointly produce and market Indian and Chinese traditional medicines.

Singh will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao, as well as President Hu Jintao.

The total value of India-China trade, which stood at $338 million during the visit of P V Narasimha Rao in September 1993, has grown 100 times to $38 billion in nearly 15 years.

The economy and trade will again be the focus of attention when Singh meets his counterpart Wen Jiabao on Monday and President Hu Jintao on Tuesday.

Singh and Jiabao will be presented with the report of a joint task force to study the feasibility and benefits of an India-China regional trading arrangement in Beijing. It is likely that the two prime ministers will call for actual negotiations on a regional trading arrangement, official sources said.

In November, the countries agreed to double trade to $40 billion by 2010. The two Asian giants also saw a thaw in relations in recent years, with their first-ever joint military exercise in southwestern China last month.