BEIJING - Chinese President Hu Jintao will make his maiden trip as national leader to India and Pakistan later this month, China's foreign ministry said on Tuesday amid reports of free trade talks between Beijing and New Delhi.

Chinese President Hu Jintao will visit India and Pakistan later this month, his first visits to the two countries as China's top leader. [AFP]

Hu will visit India from November 20-23 and Pakistan 23-26, following trips to Vietnam, where he will attend the APEC forum, and to Laos, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a news conference.

China and India, emerging Asian giants with a history of friction, needed to focus on cooperating as their economies grew, Assistant Chinese Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai told reporters.

"Trade and economic cooperation between China and India suits both countries' interests," he said. "We hope both sides can do more things beneficial to developing bilateral economics and trade and beneficial to mutual confidence."

He said bilateral trade between China and India could pass $20 billion this year. In the first nine months of 2006, bilateral trade reached $17.87 billion, rise of 28.9 percent on the same time last year, driven by surging Chinese exports, according to Chinese statistics.

China and India, the world's two most populous nations, fought a border war in 1962, and Hu's trip may spur progress on resolving the continued disagreement over their 3,500-km (2,220-mile).

The two sides appointed envoys in 2003 to negotiate a solution to the decades-old dispute but progress has been incremental.

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Beijing has also been wary of Delhi's agreement with Washington to expand nuclear energy cooperation, even though India has tested nuclear devices and does not belong to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Cui gently raised China's concerns while avoiding direct criticism of India's nuclear program.

"As a principle, we believe that all countries can engage in this kind of international cooperation with the precondition that they fulfil their international responsibilities," he said.

"Of course, we should all make efforts to strengthen international non-proliferation."

Chinese state media reported on Monday that China was considering opening free trade talks with India.