Days before his visit to India, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern over the dispute between New Delhi and Rome over the marines issue and called on the two nations to reach a "mutually acceptable solution."

Ban will visit New Delhi and Gujarat from January 10 to 13 during which he will meet President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Ban has maintained that the case of the two Italian marines being tried in India for killing two fishermen off Kerala in 2012 should be resolved bilaterally.

One of the two Italian marines, Massimiliano Latorre, has undergone a heart surgery in Milan to correct a cardiac anomaly, days before his scheduled return to India. He has been in Italy after the Supreme Court allowed him to visit his home country on September 12 for four months for medical treatment after a stroke he suffered on August 31. Latorre had then sought an extension of his stay.