WASHINGTON, Oct 31: A senior US official has categorically said that in a long-term perspective India is a more important ally for Washington than Pakistan.

On Wednesday The Washington Post quoted senior US officials as saying that Pakistan’s failure to crush militants has frayed America’s relations with the country.

“India simply must, as a long-term consideration, matter more for us than Pakistan,’’ James Clad, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for South and Southeast Asia, told a group of journalists in a conference call from the Pentagon.

“The US-India strategic potential is very, very profound,” Mr Clad said. “It’s been slow in coming -- I think it will be slow in coming in the future -- but it is steady. The trend lines are unmistakable,” he said.

Mr Clad said even Pakistan’s leading role in the US-led war against terrorism does not affect India’s strategic significance as a long-term US ally.

Referring to the growth of the Indian economy in the past one decade, he said: “India, I think, is seen as a potentially power with global reach.”

Mr Clad noted that Indo-US defence ties have continued to grow along with commercial and economic ties between the two countries.

India is on a major course to ramp up its military infrastructure, Mr Clad noted, with a multi-billion budget at they ready to purchase, among other equipment, 126 multi-role combat aircraft.

“It is the largest external-announced defence procurement budget in the world,” Mr Clad said. “And people are obviously interested in this.”