A senior Law Society delegation is to meet European Union (EU) negotiators this week to lobby for legal services to be included in a raft of new Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with some of Asia's key emerging legal markets.

The team, headed by Law Society president Fiona Woolf, is to travel to Brussels today (27 April) before the EU begins discussions with India as well as South Korea and a number of other South East Asian nations at the end of May.

The news comes as the Government ramps up its charm offensive on its Indian counterparts, with Department for Constitutional Affairs minister Baroness Ashton beginning a visit to India yesterday (26 April).

Ashton will meet trade and justice ministers in New Delhi and will then travel on to Chandigarh, Bangalore and Chennai to engage in discussions with the regions' state bar councils.

Commenting on the FTA talks, Woolf said: "I want to raise the profile of legal services and to stress the benefits of legal market opening."