"Obama is embracing the Indian prime minister and $40 to $50 billion worth of deals are being wrapped up in one shot," Israel Aerospace Industries president Itzhak Nissan said. "We don't have such personalities."

India has been reported to be Israel's largest defense market, with more than $1 billion in annual sales, Middle East Newsline reported. IAI was said to dominate the Israeli defense presence in New Dehli and was concluding a $1.1 billion project of airborne early-warning and control aircraft to the Indian Air Force.

Officials said IAI and other major defense companies have been urging the Defense Ministry to ease export controls. They said the new controls, demanded by the United States in 2005, were hampering marketing and technology transfer required to maintain exports.

"Free competition is the key to success," Nissan told an aerospace conference on Nov. 15. "Regulations must be employed for special cases and not to hamper initiative."

Nissan and other defense chiefs said the United States and European Union would intensify marketing in third countries amid the reduction of defense budgets at home. They said this would require coordination between Israeli companies as well as a rapid licensing process.

"The main problem is coping with the giants," Nissan said. "They are becoming very hungry."

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