By Jill McGivering BBC News

India is trying to revive its 'look East' policy

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said he supports a pan-Asian free trade area which would include India.

He made his remarks on the sidelines of the Asean meeting of South East Asian nations in Malaysia, two days before the region's first East Asian summit.

India's engagement with the region and attitudes towards its ambitions to increase its influence are complex.

Mr Singh's endorsement of an Asian free trade area is both timely and strategic.

For 15 years now, East Asia has debated setting up its own economic bloc. This week, the first East Asian summit opens, a possible step down that long road.

'Obstacle'

India wants to be included. Its current government is busily reviving India's "look East" policy.

Its booming economy and appetite for natural resources are both driving fast-growing ties with South East Asia.

India sees its inclusion in the new East Asian grouping as a strategic coup.

Made possible partly by Delhi's new, pragmatic relationship with Beijing, it is based on economic co-operation rather than disputes and ideology.

But India's welcome may stop there. India wants to go further - to be engaged not just with the region economically but strategically too.

That's more controversial. Some, including Singapore and Japan, favour India's being brought into the east Asian fold, a counterweight to an increasingly powerful China.

That view is also endorsed by Washington. It is excluded from the East Asian summit itself and is watching closely how it evolves.

'Emerging voice'

For India, greater engagement would satisfy its own ambitions, confirming its sense of itself as an emerging player.

But China may prove an obstacle. Beijing is cautious about how a new East Asian community, which is more than just economic, should be composed.

It wants membership of such a group restricted, modelled perhaps on a formula of Asean members plus three north-east Asian countries.

But the group would not include the further three - India, Australia and New Zealand - who are part of the first East Asian summit.