A high-level Indian business team left for Islamabad Tuesday to forge closer economic ties between the two countries. It will be meeting Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

The team, led by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) president Sunil Kant Munjal, would call on Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Foreign Minister Mian Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri during its two-day visit.

The CII mission to Pakistan comes on the heels of several initiatives over the past year to bring the business communities of the two countries closer.

"The CII mission has a focussed business agenda and will highlight some quick and practical steps to build economic cooperation between India and Pakistan," the chamber said in a statement.

Some of the studies commissioned by the India-Pakistan Chief Executives Business Forum set up by the CII have underlined the latent potential for economic ties between the two countries.

For example, the target for India-Pakistan bilateral trade could be set as high as $5 billion by 2007, compared with an average volume of $230-250 million over the past five years, the chamber said.

"This point will be emphasised by the delegation and will form the thrust of the dialogue," CII said. "An important facet of trade between India and Pakistan could be moving up the value chain and sharing it with each other."

The business delegation will also focus on enhancing investment and developing the region as a strong manufacturing base for which some areas have been marked for special attention.

The sectors include textiles, sugarcane-based industry, automobiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, electronics, telecommunications, entertainment, advertising, health care and education.

The other members of the delegation include Triveni Engineering chairman Dhruv M. Sawhney, SRF chairman Arun Bharat Ram, Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal, Boston Consulting Group chairman Arun Maira and Raymond chairman Gautam Singhania.