The fair, to be held between January 25 and February 5, will see the participation of a large contingent of writers and publishers from Spain and Australia.

While Spain is the focal theme and partner country of the Book Fair -- the largest in the world -- Australia will be the guest of honour.

The Fair will witness the first-ever participation of Mexico, Venezuela and Ireland as well as the return of the US after a long gap, said Tridib Kumar Chatterjee, General Secretary of Publishers and Booksellers Guild and the promoter of the Book Fair.

A Spanish film festival will also be held simultaneously at Nandan, the venue of the Kolkata Film Festival, he added.

Besides Spain and Australia, Britain, France, European Union, Germany, Brazil and Bangladesh will have their own pavilions in the fair, Chatterjee said. The theme pavilion will be a replica of Plaza Mayor, popularly known as Madrid Plaza, he added.

He said the Book Fair will also have an Information Technology Park. ''Various software, suitable for students, publishers and libraries, hardware and CD of books will be displayed and sold at the IT park,'' he said.

A number of leading IT organisations of India will participate in the IT Park, he said.