We feel strongly that basmati is a product of India and Pakistan and belongs to no-one else (other) than the sub-continent.

Pakistan Commerce Minister Abdul Razzak Dawood

Pakistan's Commerce Minister Abdul Razzak Dawood has said the two countries will never allow basmati to belong to anyone else.

A decision in the US this week to grant patents to a US company for new strains of rice similar to basmati has provoked an angry reaction.

Commerce ministers from the two countries emerged from a meeting in Delhi late on Wednesday, describing basmati as the queen of rice and vowing they would never let it belong to anyone else.

It is one of the few issues on which India and Pakistan seem determined to unite.

Export fears

The US patents office has granted patents to US company, Rice Tech, for three new strains of rice, which they are now allowed to promote as similar to or superior to basmati.

No agreement on Kashmir, but co-operation on basmati

The move has sparked fears in South Asia that their exports of basmati to the US could suffer.

In India, opposition politicians have accused the government of being complacent and failing to safeguard farmers' rights.

Indian ministers have largely tried to play down the issue, pointing out that the US company hasn't won the right to market its rice directly as basmati.

Emotive issue

Long-grained basmati rice has been grown for centuries in the Himalayan foothills of north-west India and Pakistan and has become popular internationally.

Ownership has become a deeply emotive issue in recent years.

India is under pressure from the World Trade Organisation to open up to international markets and has taken major steps towards liberalising.

But this is a controversial process and many here are still ambivalent about the impact on India's economy of moves towards globalisation, especially for agriculture.

The battle about basmati rice is just one of a series of disputes, adding to India's feelings of unease.