OTTAWA - Canada is not trying to provoke India by suggesting its agents were linked to the murder of a Sikh separatist leader but Ottawa wants New Delhi to address the issue properly, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday.

"The government of India needs to take this matter with the utmost seriousness. We are doing that, we are not looking to provoke or escalate," he told reporters. Earlier in the day India dismissed the Canadian government's accusations as absurd.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren and Steve Scherer)