Barcelona (Spain):India'smobile leader Bharti Airtel today vowed to defend its legacy as the marketleader in the face of world's largest player Vodafone acquiring Hutch-Essar andsaid it would match any 'aggressive' approach from the UK giant.

"If Vodafone ups aggression and goes for further acquistions (in India), we willhave to up our ante.We would like to defend our legacy.We are marketleaders," Bharti group Chief Sunil Mital told sources.

After emerging as top bidder for majority stake in India's fourth largest mobileplayer Hutch-Essar, Vodafone committed to exit from Bharti Airtel by sellingits 5.6 per cent direct stake to the promoters for 1.6 billion dollars.

Mittal said that Vodafone had secured a good deal and it was a "testimonyto the strength of India'stelecom sector" and clarified that his group would pay after 18 months forbuying back the shares from the UKcompany after it concludes the Hutch-Essar deal.

Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin, who is scheduled to attend tomorrow's session of theongoing 3GSM summit here, is expected to touch base with Mittal, in whose groupthe UKtelecom firm still would have over 4 per cent equity.

Mittal said: "Vodafone's exit is going to allow us to go to the newermarket," but hedged a direct query on whether he would sell the 5.6 percent equity, which he was buying back, to another existing strategic partnerSingtel.

"Singtel is always interested to increase its stake (in Bharti Airtel)...Now there is no specific move," he said.