LONDON: Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva will fly to New Delhi on Sunday with a determination to "transform" his country's political and economic relations with India through a series of bilateral initiatives and increased cooperation in international affairs.

Speaking to a group of Indian journalists here on the eve of his three-day visit to India, President Lula, who is accompanied by a high-level business delegation, said he was "confident" of clinching a number of important agreements aimed at boosting trade and putting the Indo-Brazilian "strategic partnership" on a firmer footing.

"We will leave India with some good agreements," he said, identifying pharmaceuticals, IT, energy, agriculture, food security and infrastructure as among the areas where there was enormous potential to work together.

President Lula's engagements in New Delhi will have a strong economic content. Besides making a joint appearance with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the newly formed India-Brazil CEO Forum, co-chaired by Ratan Tata and Jose Sergio Gabrielli, CEO of Brazil's Petrobras, he will address captains of Indian business and industry on Monday. His talks with political leaders will also centre round economic issues.

This is President Lula's second visit to India in three years. Observers see this an indication of his Left-wing government's efforts to strengthen south-south cooperation.

"Political relations between our two countries have become much stronger since my last visit. Prime Minister Singh has more confidence in me and I've more confidence in him," he said.

Trade with India had grown dramatically since he came to office in 2003 and it was worth $2.3 billion, he said. The goal was to raise it to $10 billion by 2010.

"Brazil's exports to India have risen by 422 per cent and imports from India by 343 per cent," he said. He highlighted both nations campaign for reforms to the United Nations Security Council to reflect the new political world order. He said Brazil fully backed India's claim to a permanent seat on an expanded U.N. Security Council. In return, he expected New Delhi to support Brazil's own bid to join the "club." He criticised the big powers for dragging their feet on restructuring the Security Council.

On reaching an agreement on the ongoing global trade talks, he said he was confident that a pact could be reached as early as "this month."

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