India will seek a "liberal" regime of technology transfer from the US and an early operationalisation of the civil nuclear deal, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said ahead of his visit here next week.

Terming the US and India as "strategic partners," Singh said renewing partnership with a new administration and identifying new areas of cooperation will be an important part of his visit as the first state guest of President Barack Obama.

"We are strategic partners. We have good relations. But there is a new administration in America. So it is appropriate that I should renew our partnership," Singh said in an interview to The Washington Post ahead of his visit that begins on Sunday.

Describing the Indo-US civil nuclear deal as a landmark agreement, Singh said India would like to operationalise it and ensure its objectives are realised in full.

"My hope is that we can persuade the US administration to be more liberal when it comes to transferring technologies to us. The restrictions make no sense. India has an impeccable record of not participating in any proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. So that's my number one concern," he said.

He said India and the US could be partners in refocusing attention on an "equitable, balanced global order".

"We would like to strengthen energy cooperation with the United States -- (in) clean coal technology and in renewable energy resources," he said.