Recent incidents have included an assault by Maoist rebels on a Pepsi warehouse in Hyderabad and further attacks on Coca Cola depots in other parts of Andhra Pradesh state.

In Calcutta this week, students belonging to hardline communist groups smashed the shopfront of a store selling Nike running shoes after calling for a boycott of US-made goods.

Last week an estimated 10,000 anti-war protestors marched through the streets of Hyderabad and pledged to boycott Coca-Cola, Pepsi, pizzas and hamburgers to protest against the war in Iraq.

And hundreds of children staged a rally this week in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta, urging a boycott of US and British products aimed at hurting the allies' war effort.

Ramesh C. Bajpai, executive director of the American Chambers of Commerce in India, said the attacks were "isolated incidents."

He added that Indian consumers had not discriminated against US-made goods or responded to calls for boycott.

US firms have dubbed the assaults as "misguided adventures" and stressed that their operations were heavily localised.

"What agitators need to understand when they call for boycott of US MNC products in India is that they are not hurting any global economy, but the Indian economy," Coca Cola India spokesman Sunil Gupta told Economic Times.

"Coca Cola India has 10,000 Indian employees and a million retailers," he added.

Arch-rival Pepsi's Indian arm echoed the sentiments.

"We are primarily a locally operated business that employs many in the communities we serve," a Pepsi India spokeswoman told AFP in a written statement to queries.

"As a result we are sensitive to sentiments in the market place and don't see events beyond our control jeopardising our strong local community ties."

Another prominent American symbol, the McDonald's restaurant chain, said that it had not been affected by anti-war protests.

"We have not seen any impact of the US war on McDonald's Indian operation," said Amit Jatia, managing director of Hardcastle Restaurants, which oversees McDonald's operations in western India.

"It is probably because the operations are seen as local business as more than 90 per cent of the ingredients are sourced from local farmers and more than 2,500 people employed at the outlets across India," he told AFP.

Jatia said that the company was investing 600 million rupees (12.5 million dollars) to add 15 more restaurants to the existing chain of 47 by the end of financial year ending next March.

It has invested six billion rupees in India and Jatia said McDonald's was now planning to explore the southern Indian market.

Advertising and marketing officials said the American brands were unlikely to be dented by the boycott calls as there was no strong indignation among the biggest consumer segment, the middle class.

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