Eagerly looking forward to her trip to India later this month, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she is excited about her forthcoming visit to New Delhi.

"I am very excited," Clinton told reporters when asked about her India trip.

"I am very much looking forward to my trip next week," she said. The dates of her visit have not been announced yet.

Recollecting memories of her first trip to India as the First Lady of the US, Clinton said: "I was thrilled to go to India for the first time as first lady, and to begin a process that has led us to this point with the contributions of many along the way, that really demonstrate that the world's largest democracy and oldest democracy have so much more in common than, perhaps, was first recognised."

TO CREATE DEEP STRATEGIC TIES

Ahead of her much anticipated India visit later this month, Clinton said the Obama Administration is working with the Government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to create a "very deep and broad strategic engagement".

"We are working hard with our Indian counterparts to create a very deep and broad strategic engagement," Clinton told the State Department press corps at a hurriedly convened press conference after meeting the deposed Honduras President Manuel Zelaya at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.

"I am very much looking forward to my trip next week," Clinton said even as no official date of her trip has been announced yet.

"It is my hope that we'll be able to announce our intentions when I'm in India, and that we will be cooperating and working together across the broadest range of concerns that our two governments have ever engaged on," she said in response to a question.

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