Against the backdrop of industrialised nations (G-8) putting curbs on full nuclear cooperation with countries like India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh leaves for Paris on Monday hoping that the visit would help India and France "build" its strategic partnership in nuclear energy, defence and other areas.

On a five-day visit, Singh will travel from Paris to Sharm-el Sheikh in Egypt on Tuesday for the 15th Non-aligned Summit during which he would meet his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani with the hope of getting a categoric commitment that Mumbai attackers would be punished and cross-border terror stopped.

Singh, who is visiting Paris at the invitation of French President Nicolas Sarkozy will be the chief guest at the National Day celebrations of France, which he said "is an honour for the people of India."

"India and France enjoy a close and wide ranging strategic partnership. Our relations with France encompass a large number of areas and have served our national interests well," Singh said in a departure statement.

"We would like to build upon our partnership in the areas of trade and investment, high technology, space, nuclear energy, defence, education, culture, tourism and scientific research and development," Singh said.

At the G-8 meeting in L'Aquila in Italy last week, the US had persuaded the developed world to stop transfer of enrichment and reprocessing items to non-NPT nations, including India.

France, which had signed a civil nuclear energy pact with India last September is a member of both G-8 and Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

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