WASHINGTON, Dec 1: India has launched a major campaign to buy sophisticated weapons from three major sources: the United States, Russia and Israel, diplomatic sources in Washington told Dawn.

Russia is India's traditional supplier of weapons while Israel also has been providing arms to India for sometime. The United States is a new in the Indian market and is warmly welcomed in New Delhi as a key potential ally and the largest source of sophisticated weapons in the world.

The United States has already offered to sell the P-3-plus version of the Orion naval reconnaissance aircraft to India, diplomatic sources told Dawn. The P-3-plus is equipped with the latest avionics and equipment systems and - according to some defence experts - is "way ahead" of an earlier version of the P-3 aircraft the United States is offering to Pakistan.

The US has also offered Perry class frigates and Sea Hawk helicopters to India. India's special operations forces are seeking to purchase chemical and biological protection equipment from Washington as well. But the most significant is the US offer to sell Patriot missiles to India. Policy makers in New Delhi believe that if the Patriot deal goes through, comparing Indian military acquisition from the US with Pakistan's will be redundant. The Patriots will drastically improve India's military capability, giving it a qualitatively edge over both China and Pakistan.

India also is buying US-made weapon systems from Israel. Top on this list are the Phalcom early warning aircraft and the Arrow missile defence system. While India has already purchased the Phalcon, considered the best airborne early warning system in the world, the talks for Arrow missile are still continuing.

Western defence experts say that the dilemma the Indians now face is whether to continue to depend on their traditional arms sources in Russia or to switch over to the American systems.

Both for political and military reasons, New Delhi wants to move closer to the United States but is still not sure if Washington can be trusted as a long-term ally. And that's why they do not want to annoy the Russians by moving too close to the Americans, at least not yet.

However, policy makers in New Delhi feel that the Bush-II administration, despite its offer of a $1.2 billion arms package to Pakistan, wants a close strategic alliance with India.

Soon after President Bush's re-election on Nov. 2, Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran visited Washington and was the first foreign dignitary to be received by the secretary of state-designate Condoleezza Rice.

He also met other senior officials at the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon. In these meetings, Bush administration officials clearly indicated that their policy towards India is based on two crucial components: deepening of business relations and giving India a new place in the "international security architecture."