May 3 - India is aiming to more than double its merchandise exports in three years, it said Tuesday, adding it would step up a drive to diversify its markets to achieve the goal.

Women working at a textiles factory in Pali, Rajasthan, India

"This (target) is achievable, with a determined effort," Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said in a strategy paper released in New Delhi.

India's exports in the last fiscal year hit a record $245.9 billion as demand for made-in-India goods picked up following a slump due to the global financial crisis.

The performance beat the government's target of $225 billion with the surge propelled by demand mainly from the United States, some western European markets and new destinations in Latin America and Africa.

The country now is aiming to achieve $500 billion in export revenue in the year through March 2014, Sharma said, which will require annual export growth of 26.7 percent.

The higher export drive would be led by sectors such as engineering, gems and jewellery, chemicals and textiles, he said.

The export strategy hinges on aggressive marketing of "Brand India" and reducing transaction costs to make exports more competitive, Sharma said.

Under the marketing strategy, the document said there is was a need to focus on new markets in Asia, South America, the Pacific region and the Far East to offset uncertain demand in traditional Western markets.

"We are going to incentivise exports to these regions," Sharma said.

"We will take it forward having preferential trade agreements, free trade pacts in these regions to ensure that our industry and exporters have a better access in these markets," he said.

Asia's third-largest economy has relied mainly on domestic consumption to drive its strong growth but now higher exports are needed to help India attain its economic growth target of nine to 10 percent annual expansion.

"We have no option but to focus on higher export growth and devise a strategy for rapidly increasing merchandise exports," Sharma said.

The trade strategy paper was released as India's hawkish central bank hiked interest rates by a bigger-than-expected 50 basis points, saying short-term economic growth may have to be sacrificed in the fight against inflation.