Israeli rabbis in northeastern India have stopped converting about 6,000 people who believe they are members of an ancient tribe of Israel, after the Indian government complained about the religious activity, an official said Wednesday.

Instead of converting the Bnei Menashe in their home region, the rabbis will now wait to convert them until Israel brings them to the Jewish state, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.

Earlier this year, Israel's Sephardi chief rabbi recognized the Bnei Menashe as one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel, ruling that they followed several Jewish traditions. Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar ordered their formal conversions to Orthodox Judaism, which would be crucial to their recognition as Jews by religious authorities.

Bnei Menashe members believe they are descendants of Jews who were banished from biblical Israel by the Assyrians in the eighth century B.C. and gradually worked their way eastward to India. In the 19th century,

British missionaries to India converted the Bnei Menashe members - who were then animists - to Christianity.

In September, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office sent to India six

rabbis, who converted 600 members of the tribe to Judaism to ensure they could immigrate to Israel under state law, The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday.

The prime minister's office did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

India had pressured Israel to stop the conversion activity, implying that it violated Indian law, Regev said. In response, an Israeli parliamentary

committee asked Sharon to reconsider the location of the conversions, Regev said.

"For the time being Israel is ceasing its conversion activity in India," Regev said, adding that the government is still trying to bring the Bnei Menashe to Israel.

About 800 members of the Bnei Menashe have been brought to Israel - and

formally converted - over the last decade by the private group Amishav, Hebrew for "my people returns."

According to Amishav, there is ample evidence to show the Bnei Menashe are of Jewish descent. Their customs, including mourning rites, hygiene and the use of a lunar calendar, closely mirror Jewish traditions.

Most of the Bnei Menashe members brought to Israel have been settled in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, which Israel evacuated this summer.