There are some of the issues that will be at the heart of talks between India and the US in the coming weeks, as New Delhi seeks to expand the scope of its dialogue with Washington beyond the usual security perimeter now that the test ban treaty has taken a back seat.

Prime Minister Vajpayee's Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra arrives in Washington on Wednesday to engage US officials on a variety of trade issues linked to the upcoming World Trade Organisation meeting in Seattle next month, amid what some pundits say is the possibility of a joint Indo-US front.

Easier said than done, say others. Notwithstanding thepanegyrics currently being written on Indo-US trade relations, officials and analysts familiar with the checkered history of the issues say there are dreadful imbalances weighed heavily in favour of the United States and American interlocutors need to address them in order to win Indian confidence.

At the root of Indian qualms are the barriers that Washington seeks to impose selectively whenever and where ever it suits US interests.

For instance, while US demands and often gets access to India for its goods, Indian attempts to gain uniform access to American markets is baulked on debatable grounds, such as environment or labour violation (e.g: Indian carpets or Pakistani footballs violate child labour laws). ``While there are societal differences one has to consider, the overall aim is to protect their markets from the competitive advantage we have,'' one official familiar with the issues said.

For elite newspaper readers, the example that will have the most resonance is the movement of human capital.US laws permit only a limited number of skilled foreign workers (like software professionals) to enter the country. Labour laws here lay down that the foreign workers have to be paid salary equal to their American counterparts.

Some experts argue that such barriers and laws are inequitous and rob India's competitive edge. An freshman programmer might be willing to work for a starting salary $ 36,000 a year, instead of the $45,000 that a company may have earmarked for an American programmer.

But Indian officials emphasised that the differences could be overcome and there were promising areas of cooperation, though talk of a Indo-US joint front may be a little premature. In fact, there is greater domestic opposition to WTO in the US than in India.

``We are trying to understand the US position. After all, we are founder members of GATT and WTO and we hope to be overall beneficiaries too of the new regime,'' a senior Indian official said. Another official said the two sides -- India and US -- could beexpected to ``bargain like real merchants.''

Already, the two sides have haggled fiercely -- and some times bitterly -- over issues like the phasing out of Qualitative Restrictions (QRs) which allows the US access to Indian markets for goods that India blocked for many years to develop its domestic markets.

It is a measure of how much importance trade issues and the WTO meeting has acquired that the government has asked Mishra to lead the team -- which includes commerce secretary P P Prabhu and India's trade ambassador in Geneva -- for parleys with India's major trading partners.

Following talks in Brussels, the Indian team is now on its way to Washington to engage US officials, including US Trade Representative Charlene Barshevsky, on Friday. Soon after, on November 1, Barshefsky's deputy is expected to visit India to further build on the dialogue.

While in Washington, Mishra will also wear his national security hat and hold talks with senior US officials including Acting Secretary of State StrobeTalbott and Acting National Security Advisor Jim Steinberg (both Madeleine Albright and Sandy Berger are out). Mishra will also meet Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, who will himself be leaving for India on the weekend.

The broadening US-India engagement is a precursor to the almost certain visit to India of President Clinton, notwithstanding the events in Pakistan. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is also expected to visit India in December or January ahead of his visit.