India Tuesday said that it would ensure affordable eletricity to all households in five years' time.

"Our goal is to provide electricity to all 600,000 villages of India. More than 100,000 villages were provided connections in recent years. Now, only a few thousand households remain unelectrified," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in the capital.

He added, "Our aim is to provide 24/7 electricity to all households in the next five years." Singh noted that 1.3 billion people globally have no access to power.

The Prime Minister, who was addressing a global seminar on energy access organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, also said that 80 percent of rural households use firewood and agricultural waste for cooking.

"Affordable energy to the poor will test global creativity and resourcefulness," he added.