India Tuesday said it would not accept a missile defense shield from any country including the United States and is developing its own system to counter threats posed by ballistic missiles and enemy aircraft.

"What we are interested in is developing our own missile program, which we are doing. There is no question of accepting a missile (defense) shield from anyone," India's Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee was quoted by Indo-Asian News Service as telling a news conference here.

Mukherjee, who signed a 10-year defense cooperation agreement with the United States during a visit to the country last week, said India was interested in acquiring technology to bridge gaps in its indigenous missile defense program.

"If we get (the technology) from them (the United States), it is fine. If not, we will continue with our own program," he said.

This was the first categorical assertion by any senior leader of the Indian government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that India would not join any missile defense shield being forged by other countries.

The United States has sent several senior officials to New Delhi in recent months to brief the Indian administration on its missile defense program and invited Indian military officials as observers to its missile defense tests.

During Mukherjee's visit, the United States announced it would advance a proposed briefing on its Patriot PAC-III -- one of the most sophisticated missile defense systems in the world -- as a part of the second phase of the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership.

India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has been working on a missile defense system over the past few years that will marry the home-grown Akash missile with the indigenous Rajendra radar.

The DRDO has also acquired the Green Pine radar from Israel as part of its work on the missile defense system.

There have also been reports that DRDO was exploring the possibility of merging the Russian S300-V missile defense system with the Akash missile, Indo-Asian News said.

Source: Xinhua