The United States has said Boeing had won the bid for 50 aircraft to be purchased by Air-India as it made the "best offer", a statement which in effect rejects the allegations by France that "factors other than commercial" had influenced the deal.

"I am very very clear, that the Boeing made the best offer, made the lowest bid for the best product. That is why they won the bid," Robert Blake, Charge d' Affairs at the US Embassy in New Delhi, said in an interview to Panchjanya editor Tarun Vijay for the RSS' Hindi weekly.

He asserted that American companies are subject to very strict standards. "We have an Act which imposes very strict penalties against any American company engaging in corrupt practices so American companies want to respect the law and never engage in those kind of (corrupt) practices."

Blake's comments came when his attention was drawn to the controversy surrounding the Boeing deal.

European consortium Airbus, which lost out in the bid, had alleged that foul practices had influenced the deal.

Subsequently, French Ambassador Dominic Girard had said that "factors other than commercial" had influenced the deal, in an apparent reference to growing political relations between India and the US.

About the offer of American warplanes to India, Blake said a "major policy change" was witnessed in Washington as it decided to participate in the multi-role combat aircraft tender for 125 IAF fighters.

"Two of our companies Boeing and Lockheed have expressed their interest," he said, according to the transcript released by the weekly in New Delhi.

"We have to see at a positive interaction between two Navies," the US Deputy Chief of Mission said, adding, "we would like to do more on the military side and one part of it would be defence procurement and defence co-production."