He was asked how India would rank in the relationship between the United States and the South Asian neighbors, especially after Washington granted an elite military status to Pakistan last month.

The "major non-NATO ally" status to Islamabad had angered certain groups in India, coming just after US forged a "strategic partnership" accord with New Delhi which emphasised largely on high-tech industry.

Ahead of parliamentary polls beginning April 20, India's main opposition Congress party had described the award to Pakistan as a "public repudiation" for New Delhi.

The special status puts Pakistan in an exclusive club of nations such as Australia, Egypt, Israel, Japan and Thailand given preferential US treatment in military cooperation.

"We value our relationship with each country," Rumsfeld said Thursday. "They're different countries and our relationships are slightly different.

"But I think trying to grade them in some way wouldn't be useful," he said.

Rumsfeld said the United States had an "increasingly close relationship" with India and Pakistan and was "extremely pleased" they had moved toward reducing tensions that have existed for decades.

He also said that there was also an increase in closeness in the "military-to-military and defense-to-defense relationship" with each of those countries.

"And in each case, we value them," he stressed.

Washington has moved increasingly close to New Delhi since the late 1990s but has had to balance the shift with its renewed alliance with Pakistan in the war on terrorism.

The Vajpayee government has been pointing to the growing political and military relationship with US as a key achievement of its five-year tenure.

WAR.WIRE