LUANDA (AFP) – India has stepped up its efforts to gain an economic foothold in Africa in a new scramble with China for the continent's resources, signing energy deals with top oil producers Angola and Nigeria.

India has lagged behind China's aggressive courting of African nations to secure rights to energy as well as raw materials.
Beijing is using its deep pockets to build roads, railways, even a new parliament building in Malawi, to win favor across Africa, deploying at least half a million Chinese workers to labor on projects around the continent.
India's democratic system and often lumbering bureaucracy have left it slower to make inroads and less likely to fund big projects, since government must account for all spending to parliament.
But this month India deployed two high-level missions to the continent, with Oil Minister Murli Deora last week leading a delegation of top energy executives through Sudan, Nigeria, Angola and Uganda.