* United States seeking closer ties to counter China
* India wants access to U.S. high technology
* U.S. firms pitch fighter planes to Indian military
* India still wary of being drawn into military alliance
By Yeganeh Torbati and Sanjeev Miglani
GOA, India, April 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter began a three-day visit to India on Sunday, seeking to advance a relatively new defense relationship with a country Washington sees as a counterweight to the growing power of China.
In a sign of the importance Carter places on improving defence ties with India, the visit is his second in less than a year, and it kicks off in Goa, the west coast home state of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.
For India, closer U.S. defence ties would bring greater access to American technology, and it too has been alarmed by China's naval forays in the Indian Ocean. But India has been historically wary of drawing too near to any one country.
"India's very reluctant to be seen as too close to the United States, but the Pentagon is very bullish on this relationship," said Shane Mason, a research associate at the Stimson Center in Washington.
It is also a favored initiative of Carter, who established a special cell within the Pentagon last year to promote cooperation with India.
"There's no question about where the United States-India relationship is going," Carter said on Friday, at a talk at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "We can control and influence the pace, and I want to do that."
The U.S. military has made clear it would like to do more with India, especially in countering China's moves.
Last month, Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command, said the United States wanted to expand the naval exercises it held with India each year into joint operations across the Asia-Pacific.
But India, which has never carried out joint patrols with another country, said there were no such plans.
"The Indians are being careful because it's their neighborhood," said a U.S. congressional source familiar with U.S.-India military discussions. "It's been a long-standing Indian policy to deal with China on a bilateral basis."
DEFENCE MANUFACTURING
U.S. defence manufacturers hope closer ties will boost their own prospects in India, which is one of the world's biggest defence spenders but still has major gaps in its military capabilities.
India has been looking to rebuild its ageing air force and last week Lockheed Martin and Boeing pitched their fighter planes to its defence ministry.
In a statement, Boeing said it was in talks with India about the possibility of making F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft in India.