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US ready to upgrade Pakistan's
existing fleet of F-16 fighters
T V Parasuram in Washington |
June 25, 2003 09:56 IST
While the United States has said that it will not supply new F-16 fighter jets to Islamabad, it could consider 'upgrading' the ones it has.
A senior Bush administration official put the number of F-16s in Pakistan's possession at around 32.
The official said the $3billion aid package to Pakistan was conditioned on 'Pakistan working vigorously with the United States in the war against terrorism, working vigorously to ensure that there is no onward proliferation and moving smartly towards democracy'.
Briefing reporters on the talks the two leaders held at Camp David on Tuesday, the official said Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has assured US President George W Bush that he will make a hundred per cent effort to end cross-border 'incidents' against India.
Musharraf reportedly told Bush that he had moved against cross-border infiltration and that he had made sure there were no terrorist camps inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Significantly, neither Bush nor the official used the words 'cross-border terrorism' and instead used 'trans-border infiltration'.
When asked specifically whether Bush was willing to mediate on the Kashmir issue, the official said, "We are not getting into that because nobody has asked us yet. When and if the two sides think we have a role to play, we will play the role the two sides agree on."