(AP) - Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. says it is on pace to boost the number of hotels it has in India by 60% by 2013.

The country currently has 26 properties belonging to the hotel and leisure company. Starwood's brands include Sheraton, Westin and St. Regis.

Many lodging operators have set their sights overseas during the economic downturn as they wait for conditions to improve in the U.S.

Starwood said Tuesday that the significant increase in India is mostly tied to the fact that the country does not have enough hotels.

"Consider that India with a population of one billion people has just 100,000 hotel rooms, while New York City alone has roughly 80,000 hotel rooms," Chief ExecutiveFrits van Paasschen said in a statement.

Starwood has had a presence in India since 1973, when it opened a Sheraton in Mumbai. The company and its partners have three Aloft hotels scheduled to open in India this year.

Late last month Starwood said it planned to open 300 hotels in the next three to four years, many overseas. The company also said it planned to double its Chinese properties to 100 hotels by 2012.

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