BANGALORE, June 20: India and the United States start an ambitious chapter in space cooperation this week, marking a U-turn from a long estrangement linked to US sanctions against India's nuclear programme.

About 150 US experts will join a five-day conference in India's technology capital of Bangalore from Monday to discuss collaboration on research, production, trade and satellite navigation.

"This conference really symbolizes our coming together again," Marco Di Capua, counsellor for science and technology at the US embassy in New Delhi, told a news conference late on Saturday at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) office.

Officials said the conference will result in a "vision statement" for guidelines, but no deals were expected. The initiative comes against the backdrop of US efforts to enlist India, Pakistan and China in moves to curb weapons of mass destruction and the spread of nuclear technologies while building a common front in its global war on terrorism.

It also comes as India's new communist-backed Congress government seeks to build better relations with the United States, Pakistan and China. The US sanctions were lifted after India became an ally in the US-led war on terror after the Sept 11 attacks.

ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair said India's cost-effective space programme had paved the way for providing space equipment and software to the US, which had eased controls on the export of technology and components.

The conference's co-sponsors include NASA and US corporate giants such as Honeywell, Raytheon Co and Boeing Co, which have major stakes in the aerospace business. -Reuters