India-China relations are in very good shape: PM

Asked whether he saw hardening of stand by China on the border issue, Singh told reporters that "the process of resolving this issue is on.... It is a complicated matter".

The Prime Minister, who leaves on Sunday on a three-day visit to China, responded to questions at Rashtrapati Bhavan after senior bureaucraft Vinod Rai was sworn in as the new Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) by President Pratibha Patil.

Singh expressed satisfaction at the ongoing negotiations between Special Representatives of the two countries on the border issue. "I am satisfied", he said noting that the negotiations were being held under agreed parameters and guiding principles.

"We have very good relations with China. My visit is a return visit," he said while referring to the visits made by President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao to India.

Singh will have talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao and call on Chinese President Hu Jintao. He is also expected to meet with China's top legislator, Wu Bangguo.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee last week said that nothing dramatic should be expected from the visit.

"The visit is expected to be successful. But if you are expecting that there would be any dramatic turnaround on certain issues, which are long-pending, then it would perhaps be too much," Mukherjee had said.

Unable to find a negotiated settlement through diplomatic channels, India and China appointed Special Representatives in June 2003 to address the border issue from a political perspective of the overall bilateral relations.

India says China is illegally occupying 43,180 sq kms of Jammu and Kashmir including 5,180 sq km illegally ceded to Beijing by Islamabad under the Sino-Pakistan boundary agreement in 1963.