Civil aviation minister Praful Patel (right) and US transport secretary Norman Mineta in New Delhi on Thursday. Picture by Ramakant Kushwaha

New Delhi, April 14: The US government is taking advantage of transport secretary Norman Mineta?s visit to push Boeing Corporation?s bid to sell some 50 aircraft to state-run Air-India.

The Indian government is also keen on giving in to US requests to politically balance its aircraft purchases, given the fact that it will buy some 43 European Airbus for the other state-run carrier ? Indian Airlines.

US President George Bush has already lobbied with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the purchase and sources said a quiet assurance has gone from the Indian side that Boeing will be considered favourably.

However, the Boeing deal hinges on the US agreeing to the Indian demand that it parts with sensitive technologies as part of a package to sell three Boeings for VIP use to India.

The US has always been keen on selling these Boeing business jets to the Indian government. But over the last few years, during which negotiations have been on, a tussle had been raging on the kind of security features they would be equipped with.

India wants an anti-missile system fitted to the belly of the aircraft, which would confuse homing missiles using advanced technology, plus a special scrambler device, which would make all communications from the VIP planes to ground stations safe from intercepts.

The first is considered essential because of heightened terrorist threats to the lives of the top executives of the Union. The second is imperative to let them continue working normally even when in the air. Air Force One, the US President?s jet, also has similar systems attached.

Top Indian diplomats and defence officials have been trying to persuade the US government to allow Boeing to sell the jets ? called Boeing Business Jets ? which are custom-built long-range B737-700 series aircraft capable of flying Delhi-London in 12 hours flat non-stop ? along with all the special features.

A Boeing Business Jet has a spacious 800-square-feet cabin, which can be customised to meet individual or business requirements for 8 to 149 passengers with an executive office, conference rooms, private offices or dining rooms, bedrooms and showers.

Its glass cockpit is fitted with an HGS-4000 system, which gives improved low visibility takeoff guidance, runway deceleration cueing and advanced display features. The flight deck includes an integrated dual global positioning system and a flight management system.

The aircraft?s avionics has a dual automatic direction finding (ADF), TCAS II traffic alert and collision avoidance system and a predictive windshear unit.

The Air-India board has already made its technical evaluations of the rival Boeing and Airbus offers and things are supposed to hinge on price negotiations. But in reality politics dictate such purchase decisions as much as prices, which are usually neck to neck. The planes which are in the fray are Boeing 737-200LR, Boeing 777-300ER and Boeing 7E7-8 from Boeing Corp and variants of Airbus 340 and 380.

Mineta?s team is also supposed to push the case for F16s and F18s on offer to India. The lobbying for these big-ticket defence purchases have taken on an edge with the Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani in town and India?s decision to buy 12 used Mirage 2000 fighter jets from the West Asian state.

The US has offered F-16 Block 70 Fighting Falcons and Super Hornets to the Indian Air Force (IAF) for its requirement of 126 multi-role fighters.

These are pitted against French Dassault Mirage 2000-5 Mk2, till now rated as the best among rival offers.

The US aircraft manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, has offered to build ?exclusive? F-16C Block 70 fighters for the IAF.

These are likely to have an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar and air-to-air and air-to-ground weaponry.