New Delhi: Intel Corp, the world's leading chip manufacturer, Wednesday said it would soon respond to questions raised by US trade regulators over its deal with STMicroelectronics to build a multibillion dollar semi-conductor firm.

"The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the US has made a second request for some additional minor information before giving approval to the deal," Intel chairperson Craig Barrett said at a press conference here Wednesday.

"The European Union has already given the approval. We expect a very rapid response back to FTC and also a very rapid response from them back to us," he added.

In May, Intel and STMicroelectronics decided to form a joint venture firm called Numonyx. And even though the European Commission has approved the deal, the FTC has sought some additional information regarding compliance by both the parties, officials said.

When asked about how he chose China and Vietnam over India to set up its chip manufacturing unit, Barrett said: "We do our manufacturing capacity planning usually years in advance such as we planned in China and Vietnam ... We were in communication and discussion with the Indian government also.

"The Indian government was a bit slow in coming out with the semiconductor manufacturing proposal and missed the period of our commitment in which we had to set up our manufacturing unit."

"However, that is back. India is now high on our list in future and it's time for us to move forward," said Barrett, on a three-day visit to India.

The $35 billion company has already announced an investment of $1 billion over the next five years globally for its 'World Ahead Programme' as part of its corporate social responsibility.

"We have said we would be investing a billion dollars over the next five years, a fair amount of which is meant for India," Barrett said, adding that India and China would be growing at a much faster rate of growth than developed countries.

The company also announced its alliance with UNESCO in its efforts to make technology available to India's hinterland for education and healthcare.