(Recasts)

By Lindsay Beck

BEIJING, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offered on Tuesday to cooperate with China on nuclear energy during a trip to Beijing in which the booming Asian neighbours are seeking to overcome distrust and deepen trade.

The comments come as India tries to advance a deal on civilian nuclear energy with the United States over opposition from Singh's communist allies and amid discomfort in China over growing closeness between Washington and New Delhi.

"We can do much more to jointly develop clean and energy-efficient technologies through collaborating research and development," Singh said in a speech.

"India seeks international cooperation in the field of civilian nuclear energy, including with China."

As the world's two fastest-growing major economies, the rise of China and India requires new strategies on energy sources and security, Singh said.

Indian officials had said the country would be seeking China's support for New Delhi's nuclear energy ambitions. Analysts say that while China is unhappy with the U.S. deal it would not want to be seen using its weight to stymie the accord.

Relations between the two countries have also been dogged by a decades-old border dispute that flared into a brief war in 1962. There was no hint of a breakthrough at Singh's talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday.

But Singh said the two countries had an obligation to get beyond "problems that have troubled our relations", adding that he believed the boundary issue could be settled on the basis of political parameters agreed when Wen was in India in 2005.

Despite lingering frictions, bilateral trade soared to $38 billion in 2007, up 56 percent from the previous year, and China and India have pledged to boost that to $60 billion by 2010.

The two countries would be at the centre of the global order this century, "an exciting point in history" when the centre of gravity of the world economy moves towards Asia.

"Just as the world economy was largely about Western nations in the 20th century, it could be largely about Asia in the 21st century," he said in the speech to the Chinese Academy of Social Science.

ROOM FOR BOTH

There was room enough for the rise of both countries, which together comprise more than 20 percent of the world's population, he said.

Singh's party includes Trade Minister Kamal Nath and a business delegation that includes representatives from firms such as Jet Airways (India), Tata International and Hero Honda Motors.

Singh met President Hu Jintao on Tuesday after signing a series of memorandums for such things as cooperation between railway ministries, between state economic planning bodies and in the area of urban poverty alleviation.

The countries also agreed to carry out joint research into climate patterns on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau where melting glaciers are causing concern.

And the two will set up a mechanism to look at trans-boundary rivers, following concerns in New Delhi that Beijing was seeking to divert the headwaters of the Brahmaputra in Tibet toward its parched western provinces.

In his speech, Singh sought to reassure the Chinese that India was not seeking to contain China.

Beijing has been wary of New Delhi's burgeoning friendship with Washington. India's navy was involved in war games last year with those of the United States, Australia, Japan and Singapore, in what some analysts saw as an emerging alliance of democracies ranged against China's military might.

"The independence of our foreign policy enables us to pursue mutually beneficial cooperation with all major countries of the world," Singh said.

"... There is enough space for both India and China to grow and prosper while strengthening our cooperative engagement." (Additional reporting by Guo Shipeng; editing by Nick Macfie and Roger Crabb)

AlertNet news is provided by