MONROVIA, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- An senior Indian official will pay a visit this week to Liberia, the first of its kind in the past four decades, according to the Foreign Ministry of the West African country.

    The chief spokesperson of the Liberian Foreign Ministry, Josephus Moses Gray, who is an assistant minister for press and public affairs, told Xinhua on Monday that Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Dr. Shashi Tharoor will arrive in Liberia at the head of an 18-man delegation.

    The visit will be the first in 40 years by a senior official of the government of India to post-war Liberia, which is playing host to thousands of Indians investors, the spokesperson said.

    The Indian state minister will hold talks with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and other senior officials of the government, the official disclosed.

    These talks, Gray said, would foster and cement the already cordial ties between the two countries. Several agreements may be reached during the stay of Dr. Tharoor and his delegation.

    Dr. Tharoor, who was the candidate of his country for the post of the United Nations secretary general against former UN chief Kofi Annan, will also hold talks with the United Nations mission in Liberia, including members of the Indian contingent serving within the mission.

    Indian has a large number of peace keepers mostly women serving in the United Nations Peace Keeping Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). The Asian state is one of the several nations that have an ambassador accredited to Liberia, but the female ambassador is resident in neighboring Cote d'Ivoire.