India on Monday said the millions of dollars worth of US military assistance to Pakistan was "disproportionate" to Islamabad's needs and warned that it could be misused against India.
Defence Minister AK Antony told reporters in New Delhi that he had raised India's concerns during meetings with visiting US National Security Advisor James Jones and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, last week.
Antony pointed out that the arms supplies were "disproportionate to the war on terror" for which they being provided.
"We feel there is every possibility of diverting this sophisticated equipment against India," Antony said after a function in the Indian capital.
Antony said Delhi was worried about Pakistan misusing the assistance to build capacity against India and asked Washington to set up a mechanism to monitor the supplies.
US military supplies to Pakistan are estimated to be worth more than 300 million dollars annually, local news reports said. Among the supplies are F-16 combat jets, missiles, heavy artillery guns and helicopter gunships.
Including funding and training as well as equipment, US total support to Pakistani security forces was over 1 billion dollars in 2008, just over 2 billion dollars in 2009, and was projected to surpass that amount this year, according to the US Department of Defense website.
Pakistan is central in Washington's strategy in Afghanistan as well as tackling Taliban and al-Qaeda militants concentrated in the ragged terrain straddling the border between the two countries.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have had hostile relations and have gone to war three times since their 1947 independence from Britain. India and Pakistan has been repeatedly accusing fighting with each other of whom India is constantly blaming Pakistan of backing Islamist rebels and separatist militants who carry out deadly attacks in India.
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