Sunday, October 2 2005 14:42 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Pakistan will buy 77 F-16 jets from the United States (US), which Washington would acquire from a third country for its Air Force after they are fitted with the state-of-the-art equipment, Islamabad's Ambassador to America Gen (Retd) Jehangir Karamat said.

The F-16s would be acquired from a third country but the supply would be made by the US, Karamat was quoted as saying by the local daily 'The News' but the paper did not specify whether Washington was procuring used aircraft.

The upgradation and installation of equipment would be carried out by the manufacturer in the US and all the aircraft would be fitted with the sate-of-the-art equipment to meet Pakistan's requirements, he said.

Karamat said the American Government has already approved the F-16 deal with Pakistan and it would come for discussion before the US Congress in October and November.

He said besides approving the F-16 deal with Pakistan, the US would provide it 20 state-of-the-art Cobra helicopters.

Apparently allaying apprehensions over the quality of the planes as they were being 'acquired' from other countries, he said there is no question about the quality and lifespan of the jets as they would be 'first rate by all standards.'

Pakistan had last year sought the F-16 models capable of firing medium-range air-to-air Beyond Visual Ranger (BVR), AMRAAM Missiles, which have the ability to hit a target beyond 60 km range.

Billed as fire and forget category, BVRs were considered to be most advanced missiles which Pakistan Air Force (PAF) so far did not have. Last year, the US had initially proposed to sell 24 F-16s, each costing around 40 million dollars.

As per the delivery schedule, Karamat said Pakistan would be given two F-16s by December followed by supply of 20 in next year and the rest of 55 in 2007.

PAF, which has about 30 F-16s acquired in 1980s, is currently modernising its aged fleet by buying used French-made Mirages as well as jointly producing F-7 Thunder with China. PAF has also already procured several Mirage fighters from Libya.

About President George W Bush's plans to visit the region, Karamat said indications are that the US leader's visit to the sub-continent may materialise in February next year during which he would also come to Pakistan.

Expressing satisfaction over the defence, political, economic, trade and social sector cooperation between the US and Pakistan, he said Islamabad is closely watching the pattern of emerging close cooperation between the US and India on sharing of the civilian-nuclear technology.

He said Pakistan too has growing energy requirements and wish to acquire US nuclear power plants in future.

Pakistan wanted that any US legislation on transferring the nuclear technology should not be made country-specific.

"The legislation must also open similar US cooperation with Pakistan," he said.

On the Bush Administration's crackdown on terror suspects in the US, he said Washington is deporting criminals, violators of laws and illegal immigrants. No excess with peace-loving Pakistanis or any other country's nationals have been reported, he added.