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WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House confirmed Thursday that it wants to shift 230 million dollars in aid to Pakistan from counter-terrorism programs to upgrading Islamabad's ageing F-16 fighter jets.
The news came as US President George W. Bush prepared to host Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday for talks set to focus on cooperation to fight Taliban and Al-Qaeda extremists and Pakistan-Afghanistan tensions.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said a New York Times article detailing the shift was "accurate," but rejected criticism that Pakistan chiefly views the jets through the lens of its nuclear rivalry with neighbor India.
"The F-16s that they have are used in counter-terrorism operations. We made them available to the Pakistanis and they need to be maintained," Perino told reporters.
Pakistan's new government "is facing a lot of pressure from a severe fiscal situation" stemming partly from soaring food and energy costs, and "they need assistance from the United States," the spokeswoman said.
But the Times reported that some US lawmakers have greeted the proposed shift with anger and may seek to block it, saying that Pakistan does not use its F-16s in support of the campaign against fighters in its remote tribal areas out of a fear that civilian casualties could fuel support for extremists.
Asked what the United States would get in return for the move, Perino replied: "The F-16s are used in their counter-terrorism operations, so we get support in our national security efforts."
The package for the fighters would run about two-thirds of the 300 million dollars that Pakistan will get this year in US aid for military equipment and training, the Times said.
In 2007, US lawmakers specified that the monies should to go to law enforcement or counter-terrorism.
At the US State Department, spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said the money would go to improving the jets' radars, communications, targeting systems, giving them real-time intelligence and enabling them to operate effectively at night.
"The bottom line here is that we've shifted money to help the democratically elected government of Pakistan to fight a common foe, a common enemy that we have," Gallegos told reporters.
The move came with Gilani expected to face searching questions about his fledgling government's commitment to battling Islamist extremists, particularly in the remote tribal areas along Afghanistan's border, where terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden is thought to be hiding.
Bush said earlier this month that he was "troubled" by the movement of extremists from Pakistan to Afghanistan and would discuss the threat with Gilani when he visits.
US military commanders have reported a 40 percent rise in militant attacks on parts of eastern Afghanistan since Pakistan's new government launched peace talks with Taliban rebels in the tribal belt.
Legislation was introduced in the US Congress on July 15 proposing non-military aid to Pakistan be tripled to 7.5 billion dollars over five years, but linking security aid to counter-terrorism performance.
Washington has already pledged 750 million dollars in development aid to the tribal areas over the next five years, in addition to the 10 billion in military aid it has channelled to Islamabad since 2001.
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