Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh today said that India and China needed to work together to ensure that the two countries benefited from the economic resurgence and integration of Asia.

Addressing the India-China Economic, Trade and Investment Summit, Dr Singh said that. the two countries were the fastest growing large economies in the world that were becoming engines of global economic growth. (See: Text of Dr Manmohan Singh's address to the India-China Economic, Trade and Investment Summit)

''At a time when there are concerns about a global economic slowdown, China and India can sustain growth through their own development. We must engage China and learn to both compete and cooperate,'' he added.

On trade relations between the two countries he said, ''Our bilateral trade with China has doubled in the last two years. Our trade target of $20 billion by 2008 has been reached two years ahead of schedule.'' He called for an ''increased economic engagement between India and China.''

''The rise of China and India should be viewed as an international public good by the global community since it offers new opportunities to sustain global growth,'' said Manmohan.

According to China's commerce ministry bilateral trade between India and China rose 56 per cent from the previous year in 2007 to $38.6 billion,  though the balance is increasingly skewed in China's favour, despite Chinese complaints of barriers to direct investment..

Singh, who is currently in Beijing to build stronger trade and investment relations, will meet his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao, in Beijing today.