Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia heads Monday for a three-day visit to neighbouring India where she is expected to reap the dividends of a crackdown on Islamic extremists, officials and analysts said.
During the visit, her first to India since taking power in October 2001, Zia will discuss "joint co-operation to fight terrorism" with her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh, foreign ministry spokesman Zahirul Haq said.
"Both sides will discuss all bilateral issues including cross border terrorism, security, trade, transport linkages and water sharing of common rivers," Haq said.
He said Bangladesh was committed to wiping out extremist elements and would not allow its territory as a base for waging insurgencies against India.
"We expect it to be a landmark visit in the bilateral ties between the two neighbours," Haq said.
India has expressed concerns about a rise of Islamic extremism in Bangladesh and last year boosted border troop numbers in a bid to stop infiltration by militants.
Concerns deepened after 434 synchronised blasts, allegedly set by the little known group Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), detonated across Bangladesh last August.
India said "the scale and co-ordination of these explosions countrywide raises a number of questions".
The Bangladesh government, a four-party Islamist-allied coalition, last year admitted that it had woken up late to the threat posed by the militants and vowed to root them out.
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