Santiago: With an eye on increasing South-South cooperation, India and Chile will be signing four agreements including an air services pact as President Pratibha Patil arrived here on the last leg of her three-nation visit to Latin America.

The two nations would be inking four projects which also include an agreement on Science and Technology and increasing cooperation on Antarctica, officials of Rashtrapati Bhavan said here.

Patil arrived here from Mexico late last night and was accorded a red-carpet welcome on her arrival for a four-day visit here.

While India already has a permanent mission in Antarctica, New Delhi further wanted to study the melting of ice-berg in the continent due to global warming.

India is among 46 countries which have signed the historic Antarctica treaty that set aside the land there as a scientific preserve which would be only used for scientific purposes and not for any military activities. Chile has claim over a major portion of land in the ice-capped continent.

An agreement on sports would also see cooperation being extended by this Latin American country to help the Indian football team.

In the aviation sector, the two sides will enter a pact to begin a code sharing between Air India and Chilean airliner, LAN, the officials said.

The four agreements would be signed by Union Minister for Non-conventional Energy Vilasram Muttemwar and some ministers in Chilean government.

Patil would also be holding one-on-one meeting with her host country counterpart Michelle Bachelet.

Patil has come to Chile after her visit to Brazil, India's largest trading partner in South America, and Mexico.

A business delegation comprising officials from auto, information technology, pharmaceutical and steel industries would also help in increasing the trade relations between the two countries.

The trade between the two nations was expected to exceed US $ 2.4 billion.

Source : PTI