U.S., India Talk Missile Strategy

U.S., India Talk Missile Strategy


NEW DELHI, India (AP) - A high-ranking U.S. envoy met with Indian officials on Friday to discuss the strategic implications of President Bush (news - web sites)'s missile defense system.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's one-day visit to New Delhi is part of a larger U.S. effort to seek support of its defense plan from nations in several regions.

``The missile defense that we envision is one that would be directed only at a handful of rogue states and only against a handful of missiles,'' Armitage told reporters after meeting Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee - who supports the U.S. plan.

Armitage mentioned Iraq, Iran, Libya and North Korea (news - web sites) as some of the known.''

India, which has two powerful military rivals - China in the north and Pakistan in the west - is one of the few countries that has backed Bush's initiative.

Previous U.S. administrations have been closer to Pakistan than India, but that tilt began to change at the end of former President Clinton (news - web sites)'s term after Gen. Pervez Musharraf came to power in Islamabad in a military coup.

``What we are endeavoring to work out together is a totally new security regime which is for the entire globe,'' Jaswant Singh, India's foreign and defense minister, told reporters.

India has pledged no first use of nuclear weapons and promised to conduct no more tests, but rejects the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which it says does not eliminate nuclear weapons, but only restricts them to certain countries.

The United States is easing its sanctions against military contacts with India - imposed by the Clinton administration after New Delhi conducted nuclear tests in 1998, followed by similar explosions by Pakistan.