Despite its blistering economic growth, India may take more than a decade to match China's role as a key growth engine for Asia, the chief economist of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said here Monday.

It could take India perhaps up to 2020 to become a China-like dominant driver of regional economic expansion, IfzalAlisaid.

Speaking to diplomats, economists and analysts at a gathering organised by the World Affairs Council in Washington, Ali said China played a significant role not only as catalyst for growth but as a driver of intra-Asian trade.

Assisted largely by weather which drove up farm production, India chalked up a 10.4 percent growth rate in the final quarter of 2003, making it one of the fastest growing economy's in the world, beating even China's 9.9 percent during the same period.

Indian Finance Minister Jaswant Singh had forecast that India's economy was poised for "explosive growth" of more than 10 percent within a decade and could exceed the 8.1 growth the government estimated for2003-2004.

Asked whether India could match China as Asia's economic growth cog, Ali said: "If you are

thinking of five to 10 years, my answer is no.

"If you are thinking ahead of that, our expectation is while China's growth rate will start to come down, India will go up and if you are looking as far as 2020, yes."

Ali said India was still very far behind in matching China's GDP and percapita income.

India's per capita income of 480 dollars was around half of China's 940 dollars while its GDP of 510.1 billion dollars lagged behind China's 1.26 trillion dollars, based on 2002 figures.

Ali said there was also a wide gap in the volume of investments in India and China, with investments in China making up 40 percent of GDP compared with India's22 percent.

China pulled in 53.510 billion dollars in foreign direct investments in 2003 compared with India's 3.58 billion dollars, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

India's comparative advantage was more on the service sector, which made up 50 percent of GDP, compared with China's 23 percent. One area however that the world's top two populous nations will jointly play a major role is in the pushing up of commodity prices, such as oil, as they seek to fuel their economic expansion.