New Delhi, Feb 15 (IANS) India and Italy Thursday signed three agreements in diverse areas including counter-terrorism and launched a forum of business leaders to step up bilateral trade and investment, but could not arrive at a consensus over reforms of the UN Security Council.

In a boost to India's quest for global civil nuclear cooperation, Italy, a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, agreed to discuss the need to adopt "forward looking approaches to enhance international civil nuclear cooperation under appropriate International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards".

Three agreements were signed in the areas of counter-terrorism, cultural exchange for the period 2007-2009 and renewable energy cooperation in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Italian counterpart Romano Prodi who is here on an official visit leading an over 300-member business delegation.

A memorandum of understanding on setting up a joint working group on combating international terrorism and trans-national crime was signed by Indian envoy Rajiv Dogra and his Italian counterpart Antonio Armellini.

Responding to Manmohan Singh's request, Prodi also supported India's efforts to launch early negotiations on a broad-based trade and investment agreement between India and the 25-nation European Union (EU) - the largest trading partner of New Delhi.

"You can count on my support to start these negotiations quickly," Prodi told reporters at a joint press conference with Manmohan Singh.

Describing Prodi as a "friend of India", Manmohan Singh spoke about "steadily increasing" ties between the two countries in different areas including trade, defence, culture and science and technology, higher education and research and space.

"Italian strengths in design and technology can be combined with India's manufacturing competencies and human resource skills," he said while underlining "strong complementarities" between the two economies.

Prodi spoke enthusiastically about "a new era in India-Italy relations" and said the two countries will work together on bilateral and multilateral issues, including the reform of the Security Council.

Reacting to a question on Italy's position on India's claim for a permanent place in the Security Council, Prodi said that the countries had the "same goal" to adapt the Security Council to contemporary realities but "differences" remained on the approach to reforms.

Italy is opposed to the G-4 grouping comprising India, Japan, Germany and Brazil due to its rivalry with Germany and also because it also aspires for a seat in the Security Council.

A CEOs forum of business leaders of the two countries held its first meeting here and submitted its recommendations for increasing bilateral trade and investment to the two leaders.