Kicking off a two-day visit in New Delhi -- where he lived as a child when his father worked for the Ford Foundation -- Geithner was scheduled to meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

The 48-year-old, who is an Asia expert and speaks fluent Mandarin, hopes to focus talks on global economic management, bilateral trade, financial investment and building infrastructure.

"We believe we have a huge mutual stake in closer economic ties," Geithner said during a briefing for reporters prior to his departure from Washington.

After years of lingering Cold War tensions, unease in New Delhi about the United States' close relations with Pakistan and Washington's displeasure at India's acquisition of a nuclear bomb, relations are blooming.

In mid-March the two countries signed a framework for cooperation on trade and investment, which US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said would tap the "almost limitless potential" of their trade relationship.

Geithner's visit will add extra weight to ties between the world's first and fourth largest economies, as Washington seeks to map out a long-term strategy that would grant India some parity with China in the US trade mindset.

"This trip is significant just for the fact that it is happening," according to Arvind Subramanian, of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

"First and foremost, this trip is about symbolism, aimed at establishing a parallelism with the US-China relationship," he wrote in a recent commentary.

Trade between India and the United States has roughly doubled in the last five years, as India has become one of the world's foremost emerging markets.

But that relationship, which was for years focused on trade and outsourcing, is increasingly focused on investment.

Bilateral foreign direct investment was worth around 21 billion dollars in 2008, according to the treasury, still a pittance compared with flows between the United States and Europe, or China.

To boost ties, Geithner is set to press India to open its highly regulated markets to US investment, in part by launching a US-India financial partnership.

The project would spur regular cabinet-level meetings, in line with a similar programme between the United States and China.

Washington argues that more open Indian markets would afford India easier and cheaper access to capital that could help finance the country's massive infrastructure needs.

"One reason I am going to India is to get a better sense of what is happening there -- both in the economy and the broad reform process in the financial sector and elsewhere," Geithner said in Washington.

"I think India is becoming more open," he added.

On Wednesday, Geithner will visit Mumbai, India's business and financial capital, where he will meet leaders of US firms in India, as well as top Indian CEOs.

Throughout the trip Geithner will be accompanied by Donald Kohn, vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.

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