The United States vowed to build "strong partnerships" with India and other democratic nations to meet global challenges, like terrorism and nuclear proliferation, according to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice [Images].

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She was testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington Wednesday on the State Department's foreign operations budget of $31.9 billion for fiscal year 2007, which begins October 1.

Rice said, "Today's global threats require global partnerships, and America's diplomats are helping us transform our relationships with countries like India, Japan [Images], South Korea, Australia, El Salvador, and our allies in Europe."

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The proposal submitted to Congress would increase the fiscal 2007 spending to approximately $3 billion from the amount Congress approved for the fiscal year 2006.

She also requested a sum of $6.2 billion to strengthen the coalition partners, like Pakistan, Indonesia, Kenya and Jordan, "who are standing shoulder to shoulder with us on the front lines in the fight against terrorism".

The highest amount in the proposed budget for the war on terror -- $739 million -- has been allocated for Pakistan followed by "$560 million for Colombia, $154 million for Indonesia, $457 million for Jordan and $335 million for Kenya.

Rice said, "Our assistance empowers our partners to practice more effective law enforcement, police their borders, gather and share essential intelligence and wage more successful counter-terrorism operations."

She said in many of these nations "our assistance will also help to bolster thriving democratic and economic institutions reducing the societal schisms that terrorists exploit for their own ideological purposes."

Referring to the new "vision" of President George W Bush's [Images] leadership in the world, Rice said, "Major powers like India and China are moving away from conflict to cooperation. We are living in an extraordinary time, one in which centuries of international precedent are being overturned. The prospect of violent conflict among great powers is more remote than ever. States are increasingly competing and cooperating in peace, not preparing for war. Peoples in China, India, South Africa, Indonesia and Brazil [Images] are lifting their countries and regions to new prominence."

The FY 2007 budget also proposes to increase funding for the State Department's efforts to help countries fight the proliferation of dangerous weapons and materials.

"We are working to stop Iran and North Korea from succeeding in their quest for weapons of mass destruction, and we continue to do everything in our power to deny terrorists access to the world's most dangerous weapons, including threatening conventional weapons like MANPADS," she said.

To defeat the threat of terrorism "we must work to build a future of freedom and hope".

As President Bush has said, in the long run, liberty and democracy are the only ideas powerful enough to defeat the ideology of hatred and violence "freedom is on the march today all around the world, and the United States must continue to open a path for its expansion, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan," she said.

Referring to the State Department plans to request a $75 million supplemental appropriation during 2006 to support democracy promotion activities in Iran, Rice said, "That money would enable us to increase our support for democracy and improve our radio broadcasting, begin satellite television broadcasts, increase the contacts between our peoples through expanded fellowships and scholarships for Iranian students, and to bolster our public diplomacy efforts."