Washington: The United States proposes to share the eye-in-the-sky capabilities of one of its most advanced reconnaissance aircraft, the Global Hawk, with at least 11 Asian countries. The US Pacific Command said Wednesday that it had planned an informal conference in Hawaii of a regional grouping of nations that would discuss their providing support to the high-flying, remotely piloted plane.

The conference is tentatively scheduled for April 2008.

The $27.6 million Global Hawk is built by Northrop Grumman and came into public knowledge, post the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Global Hawk can operate at altitudes of 65,000 feet and can stay aloft for up to 35 hours. It provides data through its advanced radars and optical and infrared sensors to its operators on the ground in real time.

The Global Hawk is due to start flying from the Andersen Air Force Base on Guam in 2009.

The Global Hawk users consortium of nations is likely to include Japan, South Korea, Australia, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Brunei and Sri Lanka. An expansion of this list is not ruled out.

A senior US Air Force commander had told reporters in Washington last week that he hoped to bring the Global Hawk to the Asian region next year to demonstrate its capabilities.