Mumbai, July 18 - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Saturday met a select group of Indian business leaders here, focussing on issues such as energy security, agriculture, the global financial crisis and climate change, and said the two countries had entered a new era of cooperation in handling these issues.

'We have entered into new and promising era of cooperation between our two countries,' said Clinton, who is on a five-day visit to India, during a brief interaction with the media after the meeting with the industrialists and corporate leaders.

'We discussed an approach to meet the economic crisis. We hope to create a better world for our children,' she said at the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers hotel here soon after the meeting organised by Tata group chairman Ratan Naval Tata.

'I had an exciting and fruitful meeting with the business leaders.