A foreign ministry statement said the US decision "has significant implications for India-US relations. We are in touch with the US government in this regard."

Secretary of State Colin Powell announced Thursday in Islamabad, two days after he visited New Delhi, that the United States would designate Pakistan a "major non-Nato ally."

"While he was in India, there was much emphasis on India-US strategic partnership. It is disappointing that he did not share with us this decision of the United States government," the statement said.

The special status puts Pakistan but not India in an exclusive club of nations such as Australia, Egypt, Israel, Japan and Thailand given preferential US treatment in military cooperation.

Pakistan, which has fought three wars with India, will be eligible for priority delivery of military supplies, although not the defense guarantees provided to members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato).

Powell announced the move just as Pakistani troops launched an assault on some 400 heavily-armed fighters believed to be protecting a top al-Qaeda leader near the rugged border with Afghanistan.

The United States sought immediately to ease India's concerns.

A spokesman for the US embassy in New Delhi gave a one-line statement Saturday that said: "The US-India strategic relationship was the central focus of Secretary Powell's visit to New Delhi ... and continues to be the top priority."

Powell, as he left South Asia, said the United States hoped eventually to have a similar military relationship with India.

Powell said the United States wanted to have "a good relationship with Pakistan and a good relationship with India."

Pakistan was an ally of the United States during the Cold War, when India tilted to the Soviet Union.

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."

India's main opposition Congress party had Friday said the military reward for Pakistan showed that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's claims to have built warm ties with the world's lone superpower had a shallow base.

Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said the status accorded to Pakistan was a "public repudiation of the Indo-US strategic partnership and various statements that they (the United States) are a natural ally on the war on terrorism."

India will begin a five-round national election on April 20, with Vajpayee's Hindu nationalists stressing their record as managers of the economy and foreign policy, including an 11-month-old peace drive with Pakistan.

A major focus in Powell's discussions in India was outsourcing -- a key topic for both India and the United States in national elections where economic issues are at the forefront.

Powell pressed gently on the issue, calling the outsourcing of jobs to foreign markets "a reality of the 21st century" but urging India to open its markets further to US businesses.