(BRUSSELS) - India has delivered "useful" proposals for a free trade agreement (FTA) with Europe but a lot of work remains to be done, a European Commission spokesman said Tuesday.

"I think the opening bid is not bad but a lot of work remains to be done to have an agreement which is worthy of support from both sides," said Peter Power, spokesman for EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, responding to Delhi's offer.

India and the European have now delivered their initial proposals and both sides have already offered to cut tariffs on 90 percent of goods in terms of volume, another spokesman said.

However the devil remains in the detail.

"I think at this stage it would be unwise for me to put a timetable (on the talks) but certainly we would hope to see substantial movement in the next year to 18 months," said Power, adding that the time-frame "is not solely in our hands."

"This is certainly a useful and worthwhile opening bid for negotiations which will have to go further and deeper," he told journalists in Brussels.

Difficult subjects for the EU side include practices in the services and public procurement sectors.

Both sides have also said that a successful outcome to the troubled Doha round of World Trade Organisation trade talks remains the trade policy priority.

The 12-18 month period represents a slip on a target given by Indian Premier Manmohan Singh following an EU-India summit in Delhi last November when he said he hoped be in a position to conclude the agreement by the next bilateral summit at the end of this year.

The European Commission hopes there will be a further round of negotiations with Delhi before the summer break.

EU foreign ministers gave the green light in April 2007 for talks to start with India, for which the EU is already the largest trading partner and a major source of investment.

EU-India trade has been running at around one billion euros (1.6 billion dollars) a week, accounting for a fifth of India's total trade.

The flow of European cash into Indian firms surged more than fourfold last year, far surpassing the bloc's investments into Chinese companies, estimates from the bloc's Eurostat data agency showed on Monday.

Foreign direct investment from the 27-nation European Union into India jumped to 10.9 billion euros (17.0 billion dollars) last year, up from 2.5 billion in 2006, Eurostat said.

The south Asian giant's 1.1 billion strong population and fast-growing middle class represent a huge market for EU companies.

The European Union is increasingly looking towards the massive growth potential of Asian markets.

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