Washington: Describing India as "one of the rocks" on which America could build a strategic partnership, several US Legislators have expressed their opposition to the United States making haste in embracing General Pervez Musharraf after 9/11 without making sure he would give up cross-border terrorism against India.

Dubbing the US-India relationship as a "win-win-situation", Senator Joseph Biden, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned that "dictators cannot protect the interests of the United States".

The sentiments were echoed by several Legislators at a "Breakfast On The Hill" event sponsored by the US-India Political Action Committee (USINPAC).

"The US made a mistake in hastily embracing General Musharraf after 9/11. It would perhaps have been better to have used NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) to crush the Taleban and al-Qaida rather than to make a Faustian bargain with Pakistan, a press release quoting Biden said.

He said that although the US should put conditions on aid and debt relief to Pakistan, a lack of information and ignorance about the nature of the Pakistani regime seems to be prevalent among many members of the current administration.

There are three principal reasons for this – the administration is preoccupied with Iraq, the India-Pakistan problem does not lend itself to a neo-conservative solution such as direct US military action, and the fact that the administration has not focused on the subcontinent, Biden argued.

"There would not be any genuine pressure on Pakistan as long as the war on Iraq was prosecuted," Biden said, adding the US government should find ways to cut incursions of terrorists from Pakistan into India to enable Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to take calculated chances in improving India's relationship with Pakistan.

If the neo-conservatives in the Bush administration have their way, the "marriage of convenience" with Pakistan would continue, he said.

The tussle between the neo-conservatives and the internationalists in the Bush administration will play itself out in the aftermath of the Iraq war, Biden said, adding the dominant viewpoint in this debate will shape the US government's attitude towards India and Pakistan.

Lauding Indian Americans' role in engaging senior US policymakers, he expressed hope that they would also educate the Indian government about what its policies ought to be.