Japan has assured India that it is committed to a bilateral nuclear energy pact with India, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has confirmed.

The two countries decided to step up comprehensive energy collaboration in the sixth round of the India-Japan energy dialogue, which took place in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Following the dialogue, Ahluwalia said, "The Japanese have assured us that they remain interested in nuclear cooperation with India. Any notion to the contrary is not correct. Both sides have been working on the details of this cooperation."

The assurance about no change in Japan's policy is of a great significance as last year's Fukushima nuclear accident had an influential impact on anti-nuclear energy protests in several countries across the world.

Ahluwalia added that both countries would work together to improve the safety of nuclear power plants.

Both countries also decided to strengthen the consumer-producer dialogue on the fuel, and also approved a plan to launch a joint study on liquefied natural gas (LNG) pricing in the Asia-Pacific market.

Japan is world's biggest consumer of LNG, while the demand for this fuel is expected to jump in the coming years in India. Asian countries pay far more than North American countries because the LNG prices are index-linked to oil on the continent.