New Delhi: India and China will sign a number of important agreements, including one on easing visa restrictions, during Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's six-day visit beginning on June 22 aimed at sending a "powerful political signal" to forge "stronger" bilateral ties.

Bilateral relations in "all its aspects" will figure in the talks Vajpayee will have with his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao and other top leaders, Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal told reporters when asked if the boundary and Sikkim issues would come up during the discussions.

To a spate of questions on the protracted border question, he said "there is absolutely no expectation on either side that this visit will result in any settlement of the boundary dispute. That process is already underway and this process is independent of the visit."

Asked about reasons for delay in exchange of maps for delineating the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on the western sector, Sibal said the process has been bilaterally agreed upon and the hurdles have nothing to do with the process.

"If we can get back to the process, we can overcome the hurdles," he said, adding "from our point of view, we should be able to move ahead without any difficulty".

He said if China has any "question marks" regarding this, India would dispel them. They would be "fully answered" so that the two sides could move ahead. "The fact that we have exchanged maps in the middle sector gives hope that we will be able to move forward in other sectors also. It is a process which is inherently a complex one and you cannot expedite the pace artificially.

But, if you are heading in the right direction, that is the right thing to do". He said exchange of maps on the eastern sector would be taken up after the western sector.

Voicing confidence over the success of the visit, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in a decade, Sibal said "it will send a powerful political signal of a declared desire to build a stronger relationship".

He said the high-level dialogue would also give a "direct message regionally, beyond the region and globally too".

Asked whether any movement on the Sikkim problem was expected during the visit, he said "this is an old issue. There is nothing new in it. It is always there in the background" while indicating that for the time being he did not expect any agreement materialising on it.

PTI