India, Israel discuss military ties

Peres (pictured with Fernandes): Terrorism is the biggest problem facing civilization

NEW DELHI, India -- India and Israel have agreed to increase military cooperation following a meeting between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes.

The two ministers met Tuesday as India remained locked in a tense-military stand-off with nuclear neighbor Pakistan and Israel is still entrenched in the fight against a 15-month-old Palestinian uprising.

Discussion centered on the current crisis in South Asia where India and Pakistan have both mobilized their armed forces in the biggest military deployment since 1947.

"They exchanged views on the security situation, terrorism and defense cooperation," a defense official told Reuters news agency.

"Defense cooperation with Israel is an ongoing thing," he said.

India has demanded that Pakistan apprehend and hand over suspects accused of terrorism in India, including the December 13 suicide attack on parliament.

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Although Islamabad condemned the attack, and all forms of terrorism, it says it will only take further action if presented with evidence linking the accused to the acts of violence.

New world division

Peres, who is on a three day visit to India told reports that terrorism was the biggest problem currently facing civilization.

"The world is no longer divided into east and west. The new division is between countries that harbor terrorists and countries which fight them," he said on Monday.

The Israeli foreign minister is also scheduled to meet External Affairs minister Jaswant Singh and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Israel and India began diplomatic relations in 1992.

Since then the two nations have increased military and defense cooperation and have been working on ways to increase ant-terrorism measures.

India, home to one of the world's biggest Muslim populations, has been a strong supporter of the Palestinian course in the last 50 years.

New Delhi has sought to balance ties in the last few years following Israeli support for India's fight against, what it calls, cross-border terrorism.