By Arun Kumar

Washington, June 29 (IANS) Aiming to make India one of its top 10 trading partners, the United States has vowed to help advance India's rise as an economic power, saying the two nations' growth was good for each other.

"In the United States, we aren't just watching India's rise as an economic power, we support it. We encourage it. And we want to help advance it," US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said at a joint news conference with Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Tuesday.

Noting that India, which was US' 25th largest trading partner in 2000, is now its 12th largest trading partner, he said US President Barack Obama's "goal is to have India become one of our top 10."

"Our economic relationship has shown real progress and has sustained growth in bilateral trade and investment," Geithner said.

"Yet when you consider the sheer size of our respective economies, it's clear that our relationship presents both our countries with vast untapped potential for much greater trade, investment and economic opportunity," he said

In the G-20, the US worked to give India and other countries more of a voice on global economic decision making and helped modernise the governance structures and the balance of voting rights at the international financial institutions, like the International Monetary Fund, and World Bank, Geithner said.

"These reforms have helped these institutions better reflect the global economy and now give India a greater role," he said.