India's Commerce Minister Kamal Nath and Britain's Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Patricia Hewitt Thursday launched a Joint Economic and Trade Committee (Jetco) to push bilateral commercial ties.

Jetco aims to help India and Britain identify obstacles and opportunities to increase bilateral trade and investment ties, besides providing a forum to proactively find ways to address related issues.

"India and the UK, in our own ways, will have a major role to play in writing the global history of this new century," Kamal Nath said here after signing the pact on behalf of India.

"Let us hope the signing of this agreement will go a long way in increasing and substantiating that role," said Kamal Nath, who chairs the committee on behalf of India.

"Jetco will be a vital new link between the British and Indian economies," said Hewitt, who chairs the panel on behalf of her government.

"It will build on our substantial trade relationship and provide the framework for improving the strong business-to-business links between India and the UK. The UK attaches great importance to this new initiative," she said.

The signing of the agreement was followed by the first meeting of the panel, which was announced in the Joint Declaration signed Sep 20 last year by India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his British counterpart Tony Blair.

The two sides agreed to convene an annual investment summit to support increased flow of capital in the two economies and to examine intellectual property rights issues with regard to the concerns of Indian and British businesses.

India and Britain also decided that officials would take a comprehensive look at opportunities in their respective farm sectors, including trade, investment, training and standards to maximise potential and deliver concrete outcomes.

They agreed to initiate a dialogue on cooperation in infrastructure between interested private sector organisations in Britain and India, including the Investment Commission in India and involving government where appropriate.