US to send F-16 jets, $600 million, 50 troopers to Pak

Asserting that the sale of F-16 to Pakistan is a sign of the burgeoning relationship between the two countries, the Pentagon on Friday said that another $600 million is en route to Islamabad in the next few weeks.

At the same time, the Pentagon official observed that sending more United States personnel to the country and procuring visas for them continue to be a major bottleneck.

"The F-16 sale is a sign of this burgeoning relationship between us and increased defence cooperation between our two countries. So the personnel, who are going there in advance of the arrival of those planes, will assist the Pakistanis so that they can operate these sophisticated warplanes," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.

The United States is sending nearly 50 additional personnel to Pakistan in June, accompanying the new F-16 fighter jets; thus increasing the number of American boots on the ground by 25 per cent. At present, there are approximately 200 US military personnel in Pakistan.

Morrell said the Pentagon has made great strides over the past few weeks to try to accelerate reimbursement payments to Pakistans.

"I think, in total about $600 million is en route or will soon be en route in the next few weeks to Pakistan, to reimburse them for their operations over the past year," he said.

"There are still outstanding receipts that need to be reimbursed, and those will take place hopefully on a quicker timetable than they traditionally have," he said, adding that there has been some concern on Pakistani's part about the rate at which they are reimbursed for coalition support funds.

"One of the things that has been problematic in the past is sort of trying to get enough of our personnel in that country to assist them so that we can move this more quickly. And so we've been urging the Pakistanis to provide more visas for our personnel to work in the embassy there," Morrell said.

"I think we've seen some progress on that count, but there probably is still more that could be done so that we could be more helpful to them with regard to getting money back -- which they clearly, given the fiscal situation that they're in, are in need of as well," he said.