India and the 10-nation trading bloc Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will meet next month to speed up the ongoing talks for opening trade in services, an area of immense interest for Indian professionals.

The two sides aim at entering the market opening pact in the services sector by August, a Commerce Ministry official told a new agency on Monday.

"Association of Southeast Asian Nations officials will reach here in June and we will take our talks further," the official was quoted.

After more than six years of intense negotiations, India in August last year had signed a crucial trade agreement with the ASEAN for duty-free import and export of 4,000 products, ranging from steel to apparel to sugar and tobacco, over a period of eight years.

Both sides have been engaged in intense negotiations to expand this pact to include services and investments.

The opening up of service trade with ASEAN is an area of immense interest to Indian companies and professionals as ASEAN bloc is a net importer of services.

The FTA in services is also of importance to the Indian economy as the services sector contributes over 55 percent to the nation's GDP.

India is looking at expanding trade with the ASEAN in several services, including banking, insurance, health, accountancy, architecture and engineering.

Both sides are also in talks to recognise each other's educational degrees. The two sides aim to increase their $ 44-billion trade to $ 50 billion by the end of 2010.

According to a recent media reports, the FTA between India and ASEAN in goods,  which was operationalised by only Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia till now, was to be extended to all ASEAN members by June.