Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee blamed Pakistan in an interview published on Thursday for the failure of a free trade pact in South Asia while asserting that a similar agreement with Thailand is bound to succeed.

"The India-Thailand FTA (Free Trade Agreement) looks like it will work, while the South Asia FTA and the South Asia Preferential Trade Agreement have not seen real progress solely because of the unreasonable obstructions of one South Asian country," Vajpayee told

The Nation newspaper, in a clear reference to Pakistan.

Vajpayee, the first Indian prime minister to visit Thailand in a decade, said the India-Thailand trade agreement, which would be one of the highlights of his four-day trip ending on Sunday, would be the first such pact outside the South Asian region.

In a wide ranging interview conducted in New Delhi before his departure for Indonesia, Vajpayee was asked questions on such issues as India-China competition in Southeast Asia, New Delhi's deepening engagement with ASEAN and

the liberalisation of the Indian economy.

Vajpayee said the rapid intensification of India's trade and investment relations with Southeast Asia was an integral part of New Delhi's foreign policy.

Vajpayee, who arrived in Bangkok from Bali after attending the ninth summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), said India-ASEAN trade could double to $30 billion in the next few years, with agriculture, pharmaceuticals, IT and manufactured products playing a key role.

He said India and Thailand had identified several fields, including information and communications technology, finance and banking, tourism, infrastructure, healthcare, construction, education, fisheries and aquaculture to promote the free trade pact.

"I am sure the FTA will provide a new stimulus to our trade and economic cooperation," he said.

The Prime Minister denied the newspaper's suggestion that Indian bureaucracy and business people were inward looking.

"I think today's technology revolution and globalisation do not permit any country, or any group of people, the luxury of being inward looking. We have to match with the times, and India's economic indicators show that we are doing so with outstanding success.

"It is, of course, true that India has a market of continental proportions and Indian business obviously seeks to retain its dominance therein. But our liberalisation policies have ensured that foreign business can also access these markets with the right marketing strategy.

"At the same time, a number of Indian companies are going multinational, manufacturing in foreign countries and operating in global markets."