India is abuzz over Prime Minister Paul Martin's five-day visit to the sub-continent which will include a trip to the holy Sikh shrine of the Golden Temple at Amritsar, Punjab.

Martin, who is scheduled to land at New Delhi on January 15 and fly straight to Amritsar, is expected to make some announcements for the Sikh community during his visit there.

The Prime Minister is expected to be accompanied by a 100-member delegation comprising ministers and Members of Parliament and prominent Indo-Canadians.

Martin would be the second Canadian prime minister to visit the Golden Temple. Former prime minister Jean Chretien was the first.

The Press Trust of India described the delegation heading to Amritsar with Martin as a "distinguished galaxy of Indian-born Canadians who migrated from Punjab and rose to fame in that country."

It said that Amritsar police were frantically working on security arrangements and the "minute-wise program".

Punjab Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, is likely to receive the Canadian Prime Minister at the airport and will accompany him to Golden Temple and back, PTI reported.

Martin is also expected to attend the silver jubilee celebrations of the Guru Nanak Mission Trust in Nawanshahar.

The trust runs a 250-bed hospital, a nursing school, a college and a Primary Health Centre established in collaboration with the Vancouver--based Canada--India Educational Society.

Most of Canada's 500,000 Indo-Canadians are from Punjab. Martin's trip to India is part of a packed travel schedule that began this month with a visit to Libya. He also plans trips to Japan and China.

The prime minister's office says the purpose of the trips is twofold: ensuring Canada's bilateral trade increases with Asia and integrating it in "the world that will be."

The Prime Minister has been aggressive in stating that the world of today, with the U.S. as the dominant economic and military super power, will be met within a generation by the emergence of new rising economic powers--Brazil, India, China.

His officials say Canada wants to help integrate those countries in that new world.