The author said in a recent interview with an Indian magazine that he felt hurt and humiliated by India because he had not been able to visit the country or Indian buildings abroad since the Satanic Verses controversy.

BBC South Asia Correspondent Mike Wooldridge says a visit to India would be a watershed for Mr Rushdie because of his links with the country and because it has been so central to his writings - at least until now.

LK Advani: Permission granted

Mr Rushdie said in the interview that he intended to stop writing about India if he was not allowed to see the country again.

He is apparently particularly keen to visit an ancestral property that has now been restored to him.

Permission for the visit has been given by the home minister of India's seven-month-old BJP-led government, LK Advani.

A spokesman confirmed that Mr Advani told Mr Rushdie's lawyer at a meeting in Delhi that the author would be welcome to visit India, but Mr Rushdie would have to formally apply for a visa.

He said that India would do whatever necessary to ensure his security.

There is no sign, however, that the Indian Government intends to allow the Satanic Verses to be sold in the country.

India was the first country to ban the book, which Muslims find offensive. It did so several months ahead of the Fatwa, or death sentence, proclaimed by the then Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini.