"The two-day meeting of the India-US Defence Policy Group will begin in New Delhi Tuesday," a defence ministry spokesman said. The group was set up in 1993 and meets annually, alternately in New Delhi and Washington, to review military ties.

The meeting will be chaired by India's defence secretary, Ajay Prasad, and the US undersecretary for defence policy, Douglas Feith, the spokesman said.

The delegations will meet for a day in the capital New Delhi and then continue their talks in the Himalayan tourist resort of Shimla.

It will be the first high-level encounter between India and the United States since the Congress-led government was sworn in a week ago after a surprise election win over the previous Hindu nationalist-led government.

It also comes after Washington in March named India's rival Pakistan a major non-NATO military ally, raising a furore in New Delhi, which does not have similar status.

New Delhi said the granting of special ally status to Pakistan, a significant player in the US-led "war on terror", had "significant implications" for India-US relations.

The move, which stops shy of granting Pakistan the mutual defence and security guarantees enjoyed by NATO members, makes it easier for Islamabad to obtain sophisticated US armaments.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars against each other since their independence in 1947, two over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir, but have recently embarked on a new peace drive.

A report Monday in the Hindu newspaper said the meeting beginning Tuesday would reassess the entire gamut of military ties between the United States and India.

India's involvement in Washington's controversial missile defence programme and a major armaments deal with the United States would also be on the agenda, it said.

A schedule for joint India-US military exercises could also be drawn up, it said. Indian and US military teams have held more than half a dozen combined exercises, mostly in India over the past year.

India and the United States also recently signed a mutual secrecy protection agreement, a requirement before swapping information about each other's prowess in defence-related research, the report said.

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