TEL AVIV — The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has agreed to consider a U.S. demand to provide information on defense sales to such countries as India and Singapore.

"We are not in a position to tell the United States 'no,'" an official said. "Our military is based on U.S. platforms and subsystems. We're going to have to use persuasion rather than rejection."

Last week, the U.S. Defense Department acknowledged that the United States has been reviewing all arms exports and technology transfer requests from Israel. Pentagon officials said this has resulted in delays of U.S. defense exports to Israel, Middle East Newsline reported.

The U.S. demand has stunned Israeli defense executives and divided the Defense Ministry staff, officials said. Mofaz and several of his aides were said to support the U.S. demand to supervise arms sales to India and Singapore. Senior officials at the ministry's Sibat arms export agency have objected.

"U.S. supervision over Israeli arms exports will automatically mean U.S. veto power," an official said. "At that point, Washington could make any export deal a crisis in bilateral relations. It would mark the end of our defense industry."

Officials said the Defense Ministry has agreed to discuss a demand by the Bush administration to extend U.S. supervision over Israeli weapons exports from China to a range of countries. They said that for the last year Israel has been providing information on military and dual-use deals with China and has been pressed to do the same for India and Singapore.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has already signaled his consent to U.S. supervision over Israeli arms deals to India and Singapore, the officials said. They said India and Singapore could be included in a U.S. draft memorandum of understanding that would enable the State Department and Defense Department to monitor Israeli arms exports.

An Israeli defense source said the U.S. demand for supervision over arms sales to India and Singapore was submitted at technical-level talks with the Pentagon. The source said the Pentagon has been issuing greater demands in an effort to ensure the dismissal of Defense Ministry director-general Amos Yaron, accused of concealing an Israeli project to overhaul the Harpy attack unmanned aerial vehicle for China.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom has already apologized to the United States for the Harpy project. Shalom's remarks came as Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing arrived in Israel on Sunday to seek clarifications on the Harpy and other suspended Israeli projects.

Li said his country expects to double trade with Israel from its current volume, estimated at $2.4 billion. Israeli officials said Beijing has threatened to end all commercial relations with Israel unless the Harpy contract was honored.

"If things were done that were not acceptable to the Americans, then we are sorry but these things were done with the utmost innocence," Shalom said. "The United States is our biggest ally and none of the things that were done were done with the intention of harming U.S. interests."

For her part, visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did not provide any indication that the Israeli-U.S. crisis was nearing a conclusion. Ms. Rice said Israel, which maintains strong defense cooperation with Washington, must understand U.S. concerns regarding arms sales to Beijing.

"I appreciate that the Israeli government has been working on this issue," Ms. Rice said on Sunday. "I discussed it also with Defense Minister Mofaz last night and I believe that the Israelis now understand our concerns and I'm certain that, as good partners can, that we can come to some resolution to allow us to proceed."