NEW DELHI, 23 July  — The failed India-Pakistan summit and India-US economic ties are expected to figure high in Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Christina Rocca’s talks with Indian officials here.

Rocca, President George W. Bush’s pointman for South Asia, was expected to arrive in New Delhi late yesterday on a three-day visit that will also take her to Nepal and Pakistan.

Rocca’s visit, her first to the region since taking over the post, was described by the US Embassy here as a “familiarization tour” in the wake of the failed July 15-16 Agra summit and political crises in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

External Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao said political and economic ties between India and the US were expected to figure in Rocca’s dialogue with her counterpart Jayant Prasad, a joint secretary in the ministry. “It is only natural that we will be briefing her about the Agra summit and the reasons why India and Pakistan could not reach an agreement,” she said.

Others noted while there was already intense political engagement between the two countries, the same could not be said for economic cooperation. This would figure prominently in the talks with Rocca.

The issue of lifting US economic and other sanctions imposed on India in the wake of the 1998 nuclear tests would also be discussed, they said.

On the eve of her India visit, Rocca said the Bush administration would complete the transformation of the US-India relationship with special emphasis on strengthening economic ties. “The first characteristic of this relationship and the foundation of our policy is recognition of the vitality and importance of India to American interests,” she told a meeting of the Indian American Friendship Council in Washington. A second characteristic of this relationship was the “new focus on India’s economic significance.”

“India’s economic potential following a decade of free-market reforms is immense,” she said, but regretted that though the US is India’s largest trading partner bilateral trade remains “far below what it should be.”

Rocca will also call on External Affairs and Defense Minister Jaswant Singh and Brajesh Mishra, principal secretary to the prime minister.

A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer, Rocca would also be interested in getting the Indian perception of the developments in Afghanistan in the context of Indo-US cooperation in countering international terrorism, official sources said.

Her visit is part of the high-level engagement between the two countries, initiated by former US President Bill Clinton with his visit in March 2000 and the return trip by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in September.

Visits of top ranking US officials to Delhi in quick succession cannot be de-linked from the Agra-fiasco. Rocca’s visit comes close on the heels of that of Gen. Henry Shelton, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff. Shelton’s visit last week was the first to India by a US defense chief and marked the resumption of regular military-to-military contacts, disrupted by Delhi’s nuclear tests three years ago.

The United States’ cards were partly disclosed by Secretary of State Colin Powell at a press briefing in Washington. He said, “We will do everything we can to lend out good offices to the improvement of relations between the countries and the difficult outstanding issues, whether its Kashmir or nuclear issues.”

Powell also plans to visit South Asia in the near future, “I don’t have a trip planned yet, but I certainly will be planning one.” The official line maintained by America so far regarding the Agra summit is that it was not a failure.

The United States has emphasized that India and Pakistan should continue to talk. Visits of top-ranking US officials may be viewed as a pressure-building exercise in this direction. US strongly supports “sustained engagement at a senior level between India and Pakistan.”