New Delhi, Jan 7 : Downplaying reports of Beijing's growing influence in Kathmandu, External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna Thursday said Nepal should take into account India's security concerns while pursuing relations with other countries.

Krishna's remarks come amid a plan by the opposition Maoist party in Nepal to start anti-India protests ahead of his visit to Kathmandu Jan 15.

"Nepal should take into account our security concerns while they carry relations with other countries," Krishna told reporters here when asked about reports of China's growing clout in Nepal.

Making it clear that Nepal was a sovereign nation to decide the course of its foreign policy, Krishna described India-Nepal ties as "special and time-tested", days before he goes to Kathmandu on an official visit.

Maoist supremo and former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda Tuesday told the media his party would start protest rallies in areas that Nepal says have been encroached upon by Indians.

Prachanda also said that during the final phase of the anti-government protests, his party would torch in public copies of the bilateral treaties signed with India that are "detrimental" to Nepal.

They include the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship and the Mahakali Treaty of 1996.(IANS)