A US newspaper has reported on its website that Gates is carrying a letter from President George W. Bush offering to give the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk to India, along with 65 F/A-18E/F Superhornet aircraft that may be based on it.
Indian defence ministry sources officially declined to comment on such an offer.
But India's navy chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta, said in December that India was not interested in the Kitty Hawk right now because, in his words, "it is too old".
There have been other commentators, however, who find merit in an offer of the USS Kitty Hawk to India. A defence ministry official was ambiguous when asked if a formal offer of the ship was made and said there was "some talk" of it about two years back.