Hasina was invited by Prime Minister A B Vajpayee about a month ago to inaugurate the Calcutta Book Fair on Wednesday, as part of an official three-day visit which will also take her to Shantiniketan.

``The Government's foreign policy priority is an ever-expanding concentric circle,'' Singh told The Indian Express, adding, ``We start with the innermost circle, which is the neighbourhood.''

India is likely to soon propose a treaty with Bangladesh on the lines of the free trade treaty with Sri Lanka. ``Economic development through economic integration is the key'' to regional security, Singh said, explaining that India would aim at creating a South Asian consensus on the exploitation of energy.

Just as the power purchase agreement with Pakistan is a ``smallstep'' in this direction, New Delhi now hopes that Bangladesh, emerging as a nation with major natural gas reserves, will look at India as the largest natural consumer of the gas.

Asked about the difference between the Bharatiya Janata Party's vision of its neighbourhood and that enunciated by former PM I K Gujral, Singh said, ``What we are demonstrating is in the delivery.''

Singh's day-long trip to Calcutta provides the message. Both sides have a number of issues they would like to raise with the other, such as the Calcutta-Dhaka bus service, illegal migration from Bangladesh into India, the Anup Chetia episode, terrorists in the North-East using Bangladesh as a safe haven, as well as the implementation of trade concessions which Gujral promised Dhaka but has still not seen the light of day.

In fact, Indian traders and entrepreneurs are seen by neighbouring governments as putting a spoke in New Delhi's determination to put into place an integrated neighbourhood, much on the lines of the EuropeanUnion. At the very least, the intention to develop the sub-continent's economy would enhance India's benign image abroad.

It is because of the influence wielded by these entrepreneurs that the Government has still not been able to implement tariff concessions on 516 items promised by Gujral. Delhi Customs, for example, has still not been told about these concessions and refuses to implement them.

That is why Dhaka doesn't seem so keen on grand gestures like a bilateral free trade treaty. Officials say they would ``first like to see India implement faithfully'' the concessions already on paper, and then increase the numbers of these items. Current trade is hugely in India's favour, with Bangladesh annually importing about $ 2.5 billion (of which unofficial trade is about $ 1 billion) worth of goods from India and exporting a mere $ 50 million.

But a delegation from Dhaka is arriving in the Capital on February 3-4, to finally deliver on a protocol on the Calcutta-Dhaka bus service, first promised inDecember 1996 under the United Front Government. New Delhi also seems satisfied that Dhaka doesn't want Indian militants to operate from its territory, but is worried that these militants are shifting base to Bhutan.

Meanwhile, Hasina's January 27-29 visit to Calcutta is turning out to be a grand pan-Bengali events, with West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu taking the lead in ensuring that his guest is given the proverbial key to the city.

Sheikh Hasina is being feted at a civic reception, she will visit the hostel where her father Sheikh Mujibur Rehman stayed as a student (Baker Hostel, which has now been converted into a museum), besides going to Shantiniketan. An 80-member cultural delegation, enormous by most standards, is also accompanying their PM to Calcutta.