London, Jan 8 : To guard New Delhi against any possible nuclear threats in the future, the United States is planning to sell a missile shield system to India.

The US is in preliminary talks with India over the sale of missile shield systems, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

Citing officials at the US Embassy in New Delhi, the Financial Times said talks took place mainly at a scientific and technical level, and US defence officials had conducted computer simulations with their Indian counterparts.

"India is a partner of ours, and we want to provide it with whatever it needs to protect itself," one US embassy official was quoted, as saying.

"This fits into the overall strategic partnership we are building," the US embassy official added.

Relations between India and the United States have warmed considerably in recent years and October 2008 saw the signing of a bilateral civil nuclear cooperation accord.

The paper quoted a senior Pakistani official with detailed knowledge of Islamabad''s nuclear programme as saying that it "will have to take counter measures to respond" to any Indo-US deal on missile defence.

But the daily noted that no decisions had yet been made, and an agreement would likely be extremely politically sensitive for the Indian Government. (ANI)