Kolkata: The Indian Army today (Dec 11, 2004) said it was ready to take up a joint operation with the Myanmar Army to flush out Northeast based militants but was awaiting a nod from the Myanmar Government in this regard.

"There has been an agreement in principle to work on collaborative flush-out operations. Myanmar is a sovereign country and unless the Government asks us to operate with them, we can't," Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Shantonu Choudhry said in Kolkata.

Stating that the scene of action Myanmar-Naga Hills was an extremely hostile terrain, he said the flush out operations would also be extremely time consuming and troop consuming.

Choudhry said he had read in newspaper reports that the Myanmar Army had begun its crackdown to flush out Northeast militant groups including the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) and the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) along the 2326 km border that India shared with Myanmar.

"On the military to military level, we have not received any communication on a joint operation yet. But if we find any militants along the border we would certainly gun them down," he said.