New Delhi, March 27, 2005 (PTI)

After initial alarm and dismay over resumption of arms sale to Pakistan, the significance of Bush Administration's announcement to take Indo-US strategic partnership to a higher plane seems to be sinking in among defence establishments in India with top strategists counselling India should grab Washington's offer on expanding cooperation in nuclear energy and space to fill the vital gap in New Delhi's needs in these sectors.

Brushing aside fears that the sale of F-16s to Pakistan will lead to arms race in the region, strategists are saying India should go ahead to explore how far the US was ready to help its nuclear and space programme.

"India cannot ignore the first-ever US offer of co-production of major weapons system and platform and expanding cooperation in nuclear energy and space," said G Parthasarathy, former Indian ambassador to Pakistan.

"We have to see how the US is ready to go regarding its commitment," he said.

Describing March 25 when the US made the announcement as a Red Letter day for India, Commodore Uday Bhaskar, acting Director, Institute of Defence Study and Analyses, said the US offer would help India to meet nuclear challenges in the 21st century.

He said the US announcement on going ahead with the Next Step in Strategic Partnership (NSSP) had been indicated at the highest level and New Delhi should utilise this in the next two years to keep "American nuclear Aayatollahs", who eyed India's nuclear pogramme with suspicion, at bay.

The IDSA Director said there was opposition to Indo-US NSSP at top levels in the US and Indian bureaucracy which had a biased mindset, and policy planners on both sides, unmindful of these elements, should go ahead and open wider this new window of opportunity.