Advani's remarks come as Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf began a visit to the United States in which he will press for the release of the 28 F-16s, bought and paid for more than 13 years ago but held up over concerns about Islamabad's nuclear program.

"I got the impression that they have no such intention" to deliver F-16s to Pakistan, Advani told reporters on his plane, as quoted by the Press Trust of India news agency.

Advani said on a recent trip to Washington he discussed the F-16s with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who did not consider supplying the planes to Pakistan "to be a big thing."

"He said, how does it matter? It will not make a difference to your balance of power," Advani said.

But the Indian leader said the tone changed in later meetings with US officials.

Advani said he told US leaders that India "understood the compulsions" with its arch-rival Pakistan, a frontline ally in the US-led "war on terrorism" launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

"But the common citizen does not understand that. If (the F-16s are) given, it will strengthen the common man's feeling that the situation was returning to earlier days," Advani said.

Pakistan and the United States were allies during the Cold War, when officially non-aligned India tilted toward the Soviet Union.

But New Delhi and Washington have been rapidly increasing cooperation in recent years, with India now considering sending troops to Iraq as part of a US-led stabilization force.

The release of the F-16s to Pakistan was held up in 1990 by the US Congress because it could not certify that Pakistan did not have a nuclear program. Pakistan and India both tested nuclear weapons in 1998.

The 1990 measure that blocked the jets' delivery was authored by then senator Larry Pressler, a staunch supporter of India.

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