Request for F-16 fighters under review in Washington

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A senior U.S. defense official said Thursday that Washington is considering an appeal from Pakistan for F-16 fighter aircraft -- a request that has received a muted response from the United States in previous years.

U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith would not say whether the two sides were close to reaching any deal.

"It is an important issue, and it will be dealt with at the right time," he told reporters in Rawalpindi, a city near Islamabad.

Earlier, Feith took part in a meeting of the Pakistan-U.S. Defense Consultative Group -- a forum set up in 1984 to promote military cooperation between the two countries. Defense Secretary Hamid Nawaz Khan led the Pakistani side in the talks.

Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its war on terrorism. Washington recently agreed to sell $1.2 billion in weapons to Pakistan, but the deal doesn't include the F-16 aircraft that Islamabad has long desired.

Pakistan struck a deal with the United States to buy two dozen fighter jets in the late 1980s, but the agreement was scrapped in the 1990s when Washington imposed sanctions over Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.

Pakistan's longtime rival, India, opposes the sale of F-16s.

Yet Pakistan already has some of the fighter jets, acquired in the early and mid 1980s.

In Thursday's talks, Pakistan again asked U.S. officials to help it get F-16 fighter aircraft.

Feith said the issue "is one that continues to remain under consideration." Standing next to Feith, Khan said both sides made "tangible progress in many areas," including the F-16 issue. But he gave no details.

"There is a lot of hope in the air," Khan said.

Feith said military cooperation between the United States and Pakistan has improved.

"Defense ties between the U.S. and Pakistan are good, and they got better over the course of our talks," he said.

On the war on terrorism, Feith said Pakistan had been "quite active" in going after al-Qaida, including groups that fled from Afghanistan -- although some elements of the terror network appeared to remain in Pakistan.

Feith, however, stressed the importance of the "ideological element" of the war on terrorism. "Merely taking down networks won't win the war. We also have to address the flow of people into terrorist organizations," he said.