World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz arrived here Wednesday on his first official visit to India after taking over as the head of the global development institution.

Making a statement at the airport, he was all praise for India for emerging as a country of global importance and said he would discuss with Indian leaders the ways in which the World Bank could support the country's efforts to attain its development goals.

Wolfowitz will Thursday meet women and thrift groups in neighbouring Mahabubnagar district and interact with self-help groups here before reaching New Delhi, where he will hold discussions with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram.

He will also call on President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

While stating that the country was emerging as a nation of global importance, Wolfowitz noted that for all its increasing excellence in IT, industry and commerce, India remains home to more than a quarter of the world's poor.

He said the World Bank was determined to help India in providing better services to people in rural areas.

"The majority of Indian still lives in rural areas and I know this government, has quite rightly, made rural infrastructure a priority. The World Bank is determined to be of help as you scale up this effort to reach the millions of people needing better access to services in rural areas," he said.

Wolfowitz said he was looking forward to meet "the real practitioners of development among women of Andhra Pradesh who had taken small opportunities and turned them into dramatic improvements for themselves and their families".

This is his first visit to India after he succeeded James Wolfensohn in March this year. This is also the first visit by a World Bank president to the state after the Congress came to power in May last year.

Wolfowitz was greeted by a protest by Left parties.

While the Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), both allies of the ruling Congress, took strong exception to his visit, other Left parties took to the streets earlier in the day.

Shouting slogans like "Wolfowitz go back", Left party workers set afire his effigy and accused Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy of implementing the World Bank agenda like his predecessor N. Chandrababu Naidu. (IANS)