Over 15 global telecom and IT giants, including AT&T, Motorola, Lucent, Qualcomm, Cisco, Microsoft and IBM, have written to the government requesting their participation in the ongoing trade talks under the World Trade Organisation.

The main reason for their desire to be included in the deliberations is that India's commitments to the WTO will be binding on their operations and capacity to do business here.

The request, made under the aegis of the American Chamber of Commerce, was sent to the department of telecom. This comes on the eve of US President George Bush's visit to India.

During the visit, US Trade Representative Rob Portman is expected to make a strong pitch for further liberalisation in areas like banking, insurance and telecom.