Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer is making a three-day visit to India June 6-9 to hold talks on a wide range of issues with his Indian counterpart K. Natwar Singh.

Downer - whose engagements here come in the backdrop of a possible India visit of Australian Premier John Howard later this year - is also scheduled to call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the penultimate day of his visit.

The Australian foreign minister is first visiting Chennai for two days where his principal engagement is a meeting with the Indo-Australian Chambers of Commerce, officials at the country's high commission here said.

In the national capital, he is scheduled to deliver a lecture on the emergence of India as a major power and India-Australia ties at an event being organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry June 9.

Downer had earlier visited India in March 2000 when ties between the two countries were virtually frozen following New Delhi's nuclear tests in May 1998. He had come to New Delhi again in April 2002.

The two countries are working on a free trade agreement that was proposed during Commerce Minister Kamal Nath's visit to Sydney last month for the 9th India-Australia Joint Ministerial Meeting.