WASHINGTON: The United States assured India on Wednesday that it would consult New Delhi ‘very closely’ in the fight against extremism in South Asia.

In an interview to India’s PTI news agency, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake, however, described Pakistan and Afghanistan as America’s 'strategic priority' because of the militancy that threatened to destabilise both the countries.

The assurance that India remained a key US ally in South Asia followed statements by Indian officials and lawmakers this week, expressing concern over Washington’s growing relations with Islamabad.

A group of Indian parliamentarians, who visited Washington last week, sought assurance from the Obama administration that it would not allow Pakistan to use US aid for buying weapons against India.

'Well, we intend to continue to consult very closely with our friends in India on this,' said Blake when asked where India stood in the new US strategy for South Asia.

'Afghanistan and Pakistan is a strategic priority. But I do not want to imply that that would come at the expense of India. India would continue to be also a strategic priority for the United States. And I think that will come out very clearly during Secretary (of State Hillary) Clinton’s visit to New Delhi later this month,' he said.

Earlier, Secretary Clinton told reporters that she would explore the possibility of taking US-Indian relations to a higher level when she visits New Delhi.

Blake said that India needed not be concerned about the US assistance to Pakistan. 'The new focus in terms of our relationship with Pakistan is to dramatically increase economic assistance to Pakistan to help that country overcome some of its economic challenges and to extend the writ of the government to other parts of Pakistan,' he said. 'And all of those things should be very much in India’s interest as well.'
 
He urged India to 'support and agree with' US goals in Pakistan.

Blake rejected the suggestion that Pakistan might use US aid to build up its military against India, saying that Islamabad was 'increasingly focused on dealing with the extremist problems in its own country'.

Blake said he hoped that during Secretary Clinton’s visit, the United States and India would sign an end-user agreement for selling sensitive defence equipment to New Delhi.

'We have been narrowing our differences and I hope that we will reach an agreement very soon on that,' he said. 'This would be an important way for us to increase our defence exports to India, and also to share more technology with India. So that’s an agreement which would be of benefit to both sides.'

Blake also noted that India and the US had already taken 'a lot of very important steps' for implementing the civilian nuclear deal.

'Recently India signed an additional protocol. Now it needs to file its declaration facilities with the IAEA and after that we hope that India would be in a position to announce the two nuclear reactor park sites that would be dedicated to American companies,' he said.

'And there is also very important nuclear liability legislation pending in India. I hope there could be movement on both of those. That would make possible more civil nuclear trade and investment between our two countries,' he said.

Blake, however, said that the US was still reviewing the question of granting India a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

Last week, the former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns, said the US should support India as a permanent member of the UNSC.