TEL AVIV Ñ The United States has given a green light for the sale of Israel's airborne early-warning Phalcon system to India.

The move by Washington clears the way for a proposed sale of up to three Phalcon systems to India. The sale could amount to nearly $1 billion.

An Israeli official said an Israeli Defense Ministry held talks in Washington in December and discussed the Phalcon sale with the administration. Israel sought U.S. approval for the Phalcon sale amid an Indian demand that guaranteed the transfer of the system.

"We told them [the United States] that we were in the last stage of the negotiations and we wanted some feedback," the official said. "The administration didn't express opposition to the sale."

But U.S. officials have urged Israel and India to delay any announcement of talks on the Phalcon amid rising tension between New Dehli and Pakistan.

A U.S. defense official said Washington would discuss details of the Phalcon configuration with both India and Israel later this month. The official said a U.S. defense delegation would arrive in Israel in the first round of consultations.

"Until the sale would be reviewed and concluded by the Israelis, we wouldn't have a real evaluation of this particular sale," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said last week.

Israeli industry sources said India was concerned that Washington would stop the Israeli Phalcon sale in a repeat of that which took place in July 2001, when U.S. pressure halted the sale of the system to China.

The Phalcon is manufactured by the state-owned Israel Aircraft Industries. An IAI spokesman said the company would not comment. Industry sources said India wants the Phalcon system installed on an Il-76 cargo plane. They said the prospect of India agreeing to the purchase of a U.S. air platform is virtually nil. But the sources said IAI does not plan to sell India the Il-76 transport it bought from Russia for the Phalcon to Beijing. Israel and China are discussing a compensation package for the cancellation of the Phalcon.

Israel and India have bolstered their defense relations and the sources said New Dehli is considering the purchase of such systems as self-propelled artillery, the Harpy unmanned air vehicle and the Arrow-2 interceptor from Israel.

The Arrow-2 sale would require formal approval from the United States, which financed much of the program. The Israeli Haaretz daily reported on Dec. 25 that the Bush administration had informed Israel that Washington would support the sale of Arrow-2 to India. Last year, Israel supplied the Green Pine early-warning radar to India.

India and Israel have also held a series of high-level defense talks this month. In Jerusalem , the two countries held their first meeting of the Joint Working Group on Counterterrorism. Last week, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met Indian leaders and discussed the Phalcon sale.

Peres also proposed the establishment of a joint defense research and development center that would focus on counter-terrorism. The foreign minister also visited the Indian space center at Bangalore, which launches satellites and missiles.

The Israeli foreign minister said he would promote Indian-Israeli space cooperation. He said the cooperation would focus on such civilian programs as communications and space imaging for agriculture and weather research.

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