US Under Secretary of State William Burns and Chief Pointperson for South Asia Robert Blake will hold two-day talks in New Delhi from Thursday ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to India early next month. They are expected to meet Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao and Indian officials and call on External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna. The two sides will focus on issues such as the easing of high-tech exports that could give a historic character to Obama's visit to India. Official sources said that there will be talks on removing Indian firms from the banned 'entities list' that could signal the relaxation of much-needed high-tech exports to India. India is being denied technology in 11 of the 16 categories, just one short of both Pakistan and China, while most European nations figure in just four categories and Canada faces restrictions on just two counts. S M Krishna had last week said India would raise concerns expressed by its IT industry over the US curbs on outsourcing when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets the US president next month. The visit by Burns and Blake follow a string of recent high profile visits from Indian ministers to the US. These include trips by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister A.K. Antony and External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna. National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao too met top US officials in Washington to firm up agenda for Obama's visit.