India looks set for a major offensive against Maoist rebels, whose growing influence and increasingly brazen attacks have been branded a national security failure, officials and sources said yesterday.

"A new’ anti Maoist plan has been approved by the cabinet. States hit by this insurgency are instructed to follow the new plan and get their act together," senior home ministry official Kashmir Singh told AFP on Friday.

The cabinet met Thursday just hours before left-wing guerrillas gunned down 17 policemen in western India, the latest in a series of assaults in an increasingly lethal insurgency.

At least 150 Maoists attacked the policemen in a forest village in Maharashtra state, near the border with Chhattisgarh state where the rebels have their stronghold.

"One senior officer and 16 constables have died," police inspector SD Mundhe told AFP by telephone.

"The rebels have fled to the Chhattisgarh (state) border," Mundhe said. "We cannot search for them in the dark."

The Maoists attacked the local police in a gunfight (hat lasted more than two hours, Mundhe said. The attack in the village of l aheri began around midday, police said.

Security sources cited by the media said the new strategy was for a large-scale, coordinated offensive involving seven states worst affected by Maoist violence, with support from federal security services.