NEW DELHI, March 2 (Xinhua) -- India and the United States have formulated an action plan to step up cooperation in high technology areas, local newspaper the Hindu reported Sunday.

    This was decided at a meeting of the India-U.S. High Technology Cooperation Group (HTCG) closed here on Friday. The U.S. delegation was led by Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Mario Mancuso and the Indian delegation was led by Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon.

    The plan includes a time table for reviewing controls on export of high-tech items to India and simplifying U.S. policies, the newspaper said.

    Set up in 2003, the HTCG is working on four areas to step up bilateral trade including defense and strategic trade, biotechnology, information technology and nanotechnology. The effort also involves private sector participation.

    On nanotechnology, the two sides agreed to focus on commercial application in the areas of health, energy, potable water and sustainable development, said the newspaper.

    In biotechnology, both governments agreed to work towards capacity building in life sciences. They also decided to engage in harmonizing the regulatory systems in medical devices, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology so that U.S. companies could gain more market access to the burgeoning Indian medical devices market, according to the newspaper.

    On information technology, the two sides plan to trade in advanced electronics and software, high performance computers, encryption and next generation technologies.

    In defense, the group agreed on a plan to boost high technology transfers and trade that would address India's defense offsets policy and encourage collaborations, the newspaper said.