NEW DELHI, May 6 (IslamOnline) - India and the United States will conduct their first military maneuvers in four decades to mark their newfound friendship after the long years of enmity that plagued their relations during the Cold War era.

Air forces from the two countries will back the exercise, code-named "Ex-Balance Iroquois".

Indian defense ministry sources said an elite brigade of Indian paratroopers will take part in joint exercises with U.S. Pacific Command special forces in mid-May 2002 in the plains of Agra, south of the Indian capital.

The Indian defense ministry sources added that these war-games would be the first of a series between the two sides. Troops from both countries are planning a joint mountain-warfare exercise in Alaska. This will be the first time Indian troops take part in war games in the United States.

Indo-U.S. relations have undergone a marked change since India joined the U.S. bandwagon after the September 11 attacks on U.S. cities. Some 50 U.S. policy-makers have visited India since July 2001 and an equal number of Indians, including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and members of his national security group, have traveled to Washington.

Chalked out February 2002 by the high-powered Indo-U.S. Defense Policy Group, the exercises are said to aim at easing Indian discomfort over strengthening U.S. links with Pakistan since the Afghanistan events. Indian Army Chief S. General Padmanabhan was in the United States last April when Washington agreed to sell India 8 Firefinder artillery-locating radars worth 146 million dollars - the first such Indo-U.S. deal in more than a decade.

India has been on an American embargo list since its first nuclear tests at Pokharan in May 1974. This was strengthened after the second nuclear tests in 1998. Recently sanctions have been eased in the wake of the unqualified Indian support of the United States’ so-called “war on terrorism”.

In February 2002 the visiting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. armed forces General Richard B. Myers had said during a visit in New Delhi that the current level of military to military cooperation between India and United States was "unprecedented."

Also in February, the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet conducted week-long joint exercises with the Indian Navy in the Bay of Bengal in Tamil Nadu. U.S. and Indian army and navy commanders also held talks during the exercises in order to build a mechanism to exchange information on terrorist organizations and threats. The U.S. naval delegation was led by Vice admiral VJ Metzger, Commander of the U.S.'s Seventh Fleet.