MUMBAI - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Saturday met a select group of Indian business leaders here, focussing on issues such as energy security, agriculture, the global financial crisis and climate change, and said the two countries had entered a new era of cooperation in handling these issues.

“We have entered into new and promising era of cooperation between our two countries,” said Clinton, who is on a five-day visit to India, during a brief interaction with the media after the meeting with the industrialists and corporate leaders.

“We discussed an approach to meet the economic crisis. We hope to create a better world for our children,” she said at the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers hotel here soon after the meeting organised by Tata group chairman Ratan Naval Tata.

“I had an exciting and fruitful meeting with the business leaders.”

Apart from Tata, those at the meeting included Reliance group’s Mukesh Ambani, ICICI Bank’s Chanda Kochhar, Nicholas Piramal’s Swati Piramal, the Godrej group’s Adi Godrej and Mahindra and Mahindra’s Anand Mahindra.

Clinton also said that she hoped to see a number of pacts reached between the US and India in areas ranging from energy to agriculture, including the supply of sophisticated defence equipment to the Indian armed forces.

“We are working very hard to finalise a number of agreements. I am optimistic we will get such agreements resolved, announced,” she said, adding: “We have common interests, common stakes in the 21st century. We will work together to solve our common problems.”