WASHINGTON, Jan 18: Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice indicated on Tuesday that she would continue the current US policy of maintaining separate friendly relations with both India and Pakistan when she takes over the State Department later this week.

Stepping out from her largely behind-the-scenes role as President George Bush's national security adviser, Ms Rice appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday for her confirmation hearing.

Although her opening remarks focused on more contentious issues, such as the war in Iraq, the Palestinian question and the fight against Al Qaeda, US efforts to improve relations between India and Pakistan also were included.

The United States, she said, was cooperating with India across a range of economic and security issues and "this cooperation continues even as we embrace Pakistan as a vital ally in the war on terror".

While talking about America's relations with the two South Asian states, Ms Rice described India as "the world's largest democracy" and Pakistan as "a state in transition towards a more moderate and democratic future".

During the first session of her two-day hearing, Dr Rice spoke about Pakistan on several occasions, recalling how from a supporter of Taliban, Islamabad became a close US ally in the war against terror.

Engaged in a discussion over terrorism with Senator Norm Coleman, a Republican member of the committee, Ms Rice said the Bush administration had made "great achievements" in the fight against groups like Al Qaeda.

Among these achievements, she said, was Pakistan's decision to join the US camp against terror. "Three and a half years ago," she said, "nobody would have believed that Pakistan was going to turn its gun against the extremists instead of supporting the Taliban and other extremist groups."

She returned to this subject again when a Democratic member of the committee, Senator Barbara Boxer, questioned her claims about the Bush administration's successes in the war against Al Qaeda.

"Al Qaeda, which once trained openly in Afghanistan and ran with impunity in places like Pakistan ... are being sought, run down and arrested like they have never been done before," said Ms Rice. "The loss of Afghanistan, the loss of NWFP, means that they no longer have these territories where they can operate with impunity," she added.