British PM Cameron eyes jet deal ahead of India trade trip

* Cameron to make second Indian visit as PM, Feb. 18-20

* Hopes India may consider Eurofighter if French deal fails

* EU states clamouring to boost trade relations with India

* Bribery scandal engulfs Anglo-Italian helicopter deal

By Andrew Osborn

LONDON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister DavidCameron will arrive in India on Monday to try to win new tradeand investment in the face of fierce global competition, hopingNew Delhi may change its mind and choose the Eurofighter overFrance's rival Rafale jet.

Making his second visit to India as prime minister,Cameron's trip comes days after a similar trade promotionmission by French President Francois Hollande, underlining howEurope's debt-stricken states are competing with one another totap into one of the world's fastest-growing economies.

The timing of Cameron's trip is not ideal. India said onFriday it wanted to cancel a $750 million deal for a dozenhelicopters made by AgustaWestland, the Anglo-Italian subsidiaryof Italy's Finmeccanica, over bribery claims.

That will not make Cameron's job of persuading India to buymore civil and military hardware any easier.

But at a time when Britain's government is struggling to getits own economy growing, officials see India, which is projectedto become the world's third largest economy by 2050, as astrategic partner whose success could help the British economygrow in the decades ahead.

Cameron will remind the Indian government that theEurofighter jet - which is partly built in Britain - remains anattractive option if New Delhi decides to review itsmulti-billion dollar deal to buy 126 French-made Rafalefighters.

A British government source said on Friday that London hadnoted that Hollande had not finalised the Rafale fighter jetdeal during his own trip.

"Hollande was in India this week and a deal has not beensigned so we will want to find out from the Indians how theirtalks are progressing with the French," the source said.

An official from Cameron's office suggested the Eurofighteroffer remained on the negotiating table.

"We respect the fact that the Indians have chosen theirpreferred bidder and are currently negotiating with the French.(But) of course, we will continue to promote Eurofighter as agreat fast jet not just in India but around the world."

COLONIAL PAST

Cameron's visit to India, a country that won independencefrom Britain in 1947 and whose colonial history remains asensitive subject for many Indians, will last from Feb. 18 toFeb. 20 and take in New Delhi and Mumbai.

Cameron says the two countries enjoy a "specialrelationship", a term usually reserved for Britain's ties withthe United States, but it is a relationship undergoing profoundchange. For now, Britain's economy is the sixth largest in theworld and India's the 10th. But India is forecast to overtakeits old colonial master.

TATA group, an Indian company that owns car maker JaguarLand Rover, is now Britain's biggest employer in themanufacturing sector and, in a nod to how the relationship isevolving, London will stop giving India foreign aid after 2015.

Cameron will be accompanied by a large business delegation,which one of its participants told Reuters was the biggest trademission of its kind since the 1970s. Another big trade missionin 2010 failed to yield the gains Cameron had hoped for.

He is expected to lobby India to open up its economy toforeign investment to allow retailers, such as Britain's Tesco,to open outlets there amid frustration that many of the sectorswhere British business excels remain partly or fully closed toforeign investors.

India is forecast to spend $1 trillion in the next fiveyears on infrastructure and Britain is hoping its firms may winsome of those contracts. Britain is also keen to persuade moreIndians to study in the UK.

Some of its companies have also run into problems. Mobilephone operator Vodafone has repeatedly clashed with the Indianauthorities over taxes, oil company Royal Dutch/Shell has asked the British government to raise a tax dispute it haswith India during Cameron's visit, and energygiant Cairn has faced problems too.

Cameron's aim is to double trade between the two nationsfrom 11.5 billion pounds in 2010, when he last visited, to 23billion pounds in 2015. Officials say that goal remains on trackand that bilateral trade rose by around 23 percent in 2010 and2011.

Cameron is expected to meet Manmohan Singh, his Indiancounterpart, and may also have talks with President PranabMukherjee as well as with Sonia Gandhi, chairperson of theruling Indian National Congress party.