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The United States on Wednesday agreed to consider India's proposal for a partnership on the development of a naval variant of the Light Combat Aircraft.
"India has proposed cooperation in developing the naval variant of the LCA," Alan Volknan, a senior official of the US Department of Defence, said in New Delhi.
"We have told them we will actively consider this," he said.
Volknan, who was heading a 12-member team for the two-day meeting of the Indo-US Joint Technical Group on defence production and research, said that the two countries had agreed on a draft agreement, which would pave the way for Indian military purchases from the US.
He said the agreement would also enhance Indo-US military "interoperability" and lead to closer relationships between defence labs in the two countries.
Elaborating on the proposal for development of the naval variant of the LCA, Defence Research Development Organisation officials said New Delhi required "US knowhow", particularly in developing Vertical Take off and Landing technology.
The joint working group also debated on opportunities to extend cooperation in enhancing India's capability in test and evaluation systems for armaments and on shared research on life sciences.
The US delegation held talks with Director of DRDO Dr K G Narayanan and a high-level team of scientists.
They also held discussions with Defence Secretary Yogendra Narain and Dr V K Atre, Principal Scientific Adviser to the defence minister.
"Volknan agreed to send an American multi-service delegation for a tour of Indian defence labs," US officials said, adding that such a visit would pave the way for identifying areas of closer tie-ups with public sector defence undertaking as well as private sector industries dealing in defence equipment.
"We expect several other areas of cooperation begun before the 1998 sanctions to be renewed," the officials said.
This was the fourth meeting of the joint working group and the first since US imposed sanctions on India after the latter's nuclear tests in 1998.
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