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"Having no blue water navy to speak of, China feels defenseless in the Persian Gulf against any hostile action to choke off its energy supplies."

It was this vulnerability that prompted China to look for alternative energy supply routes.

Niazi said that, despite U.S. unease, Musharraf had acceded to a Chinese request for "sovereign guarantees" to use the port facilities.

China therefore gets "a strategic foothold" in the Arabian Sea.

In an assessment to a Senate committee last week, CIA director Porter Goss described a self-assured China that was building up its military and expanding its influence.

"China is increasingly confident and active on the international stage, trying to ensure it has a voice on major international issues, secure access to natural resources, and counter what it sees as U.S. efforts to contain or encircle China," he said.

South Asian rivals

From an Indian perspective, China's strategy with relation to Gwadar is aimed at keeping its giant southern neighbor in check, exploiting the longstanding animosity between India and Pakistan.

In the view of Bahukutumbi Raman, director of the Institute For Topical Studies in Chennai, India, "China's core objectives [are] to keep India confronted with a credible military threat from Pakistan in order to reduce its strategic maneuverability and to hamper its efforts to catch up with the Chinese economy."

Last October, China and Pakistan conducted their first-ever joint naval exercises, for three days off the Shanghai coast.

In a recent article, retired Pakistani army lieutenant-general Talat Masood said China had been Pakistan's strongest military and economic supporter over the past half century, and that the ties had survived significant changes in government in both countries.

"China has been an invaluable external source of military equipment and technologies to Pakistan, especially during the period when the United States and other countries imposed sanctions on this country."

Sanctions against Pakistan over the years have been in response to various sensitive developments, including military coups, Pakistan's nuclear weapons development, and missile technology transfers.

One potential hurdle to the Gwadar project stems from the fact the new port lies in Pakistan's underdeveloped and restive Balochistan province, where nationalist rebels with longstanding grievances against Islamabad are opposed to what they see as an attempt by the federal government to steal their natural resources.

At least three armed extremist groups have emerged in the province, and one of them last May killed three Chinese engineers working on the port project.

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