The alliance has the potential to magnify the voices of two communities that are small in number - about 5.2 million Jews and 1.8 million Indians - but highly educated, affluent and attached to democratic homelands facing what they increasingly view as a common enemy, namely international terrorism, according to a report in The Washington Post.

They have already scored two successes, the paper noted. One is the House of Representatives Amendment passed on Thursday, requiring the US Administration to report to Congress on Pakistan's steps to close terrorist camps in Pakistani-held Kashmir, stop militants from crossing into India and prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Sanjay Puri, who leads the US-India Political Action Committee in the alliance with the America Israel Political Action Committee and American Jewish Committee, said that even though the Jewish groups have no direct interest in Kashmir, they have promised to support similar language in the Senate. "We are building a long-term relationship," he told the Post.

The groups have also lobbied successfully to gain the Bush Administration's approval for Israel to sell four Phalcon early warning radar planes to India for about $1 billion and are now trying to secure US approval for Israeli sale of the Arrow ballistic missile system.

"Of course this (alliance) is not against, or to the exclusion of, any other community," Puri said.

The Indian and Jewish alliance is also credited with defeating former House member Cynthia McKinney, Georgia Democrat, whom they perceived as highly antagonistic both to Israel and India. She was noted for her strong pro-Pakistan and anti-Israel bias, Post report said.

Speakers at the first joint reception of the lobbies pointed out that India has the second largest Muslim community and that India is a secular state which seeks to provide equal rights and opportunities of all regardless of religion, caste, creed, colour or ethnic origin.

"Indians and Jews share a passionate commitment to respect for others, for the rule of law and for democracy. And lately, we have been drawn together by our joint fight against mindless, vicious, fanatic Islamic terrorism," Congressman Tom Lantos, ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee and a Nazi holocaust survivor, told the reception.

But there is unhappiness among Pakistani American groups and Islamic group lobbies.

"The alliance," said Faiz Rehman, President of the 3,500-member National Council of Pakistani Americans, "is specifically aimed at Pakistan, aimed at harming Pakistan's interests in this country.

"Where will the Phalcons be focused? Pakistan," he claimed.

Pakistani Americans organised powerful lobbies long before Indians did. The Pakistani American Congress is an umbrella organization of 44 groups. While Indian Americans have hundreds of organisations, there is no single body of which all are members.