Washington, March 1 :     More than $450,000 in US funds for training Indian military officers offered by the Clinton administration are about to lapse because New Delhi has failed to respond. Official sources told The Telegraph the funds under the International Military Education and Training programme (IMET) will lapse in three weeks, robbing Indian army, air force and naval officers of free training in the most prestigious defence schools in the United States. So far, New Delhi has not officially accepted the Clinton administration?s offer, leaving US officials worried about the fate of the money. Once the money lapses, it would be difficult to request funding in the state department?s budget next year, an official said. A senior Indian official said he expected the matter to be ?resolved? soon. But at the same time, he said the Indian government was not overly worried about losing US funds. The reason for India?s recalcitrance on accepting the IMET funds is American failure to lay out future plans for defence co-operation on the table. ?We want to know what happens after the bonhomie. We have to understand the limitations of engagement,? he said. He was referring to the US sanctions imposed after the nuclear tests that banned all exports to the Indian defence ministry. Plans for joint military exercises were cast aside and all senior level contacts were stopped. ?We are not interested in picking up the crumbs. We need to know the total picture and properly evaluate it,? the Indian official said. ?You can start the car, fill it up with gas and go but if at the end of the road it says ?No Parking?, there is no point.? The Indian side appears bruised by Washington?s approach of granting favours slowly without a reference to the end result. US officials, on the other hand, wonder about the Indian habit of kicking a gift horse in the mouth and losing $450,000 because New Delhi can?t have everything all at once. Senior US officials requested the funding after President Bill Clinton removed some of the sanctions under the ?waiver authority? granted by the Congress last year. They believed the IMET programme would be a useful way to re-establish contact with Indian military officers. Plans included a course for the general commanding officer at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, considered one of the best in the country. The reasons for India?s virtual refusal are mired in the long history of slights and injuries. The defence ministry?s ?all-or-nothing? approach to the question of restoring defence relations is likely to increase frustration in Washington, instead of making the Americans offer more, sources said. Those who gain from the IMET funds are in favour of establishing contact with their US counterparts. But the stranglehold of the babus over those in uniform is supreme and in the past valuable interaction between the two sides was prevented with the stroke of a pen.