AUSTIN, Nov 26: University of Texas officials are recruiting students to study Hindi and Urdu as part of a new Defence Department programme to teach languages vital to global security, according to a media report.

The National Security Education Program awarded UT's South Asia Institute more than $700,000 (euro535,000) to open the National Flagship Language Program for Hindi and Urdu.

It is part of the National Security Language Initiative announced this year by the White House to prepare more students for the global economy, Robert Slater, director of the programme, told the Star-Telegram of Fort Worth.

''It is designed to offer important and heretofore unavailable opportunities for students to pursue majors across the curriculum and, at the same time, advance their proficiencies in critical languages,'' Slater wrote in an e-mail to the newspaper.

The National Flagship Language Program in Hindi and Urdu at UT is the latest language institute set up by the programme. Other institutes teach Arabic, Korean, Central Asian languages, Chinese, Farsi and Russian.

Students will study in India -- where both languages are widely spoken -- during their third year in the programme. By the time undergraduates in the programme earn a degree, they should be able to chat with near fluency in either Hindi or Urdu. —AP