Wednesday, July 5 2006 12:35 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: The US House of Representatives has recommended lifting a nine-year ban on international sales of the F-22 Raptor, its most advanced fighter made by the same firm that manufactures F-16s proposed to be sold to Pakistan.

But instead of putting the plane in the general shopping window, Lockheed Martin is eyeing US allies like Australia, Britain and Japan as potential buyers for the expensive plane.

The House voted to lift the ban after an 11-minute debate on June 20, Washington Post reported.

Prospects of passage in the Senate are unclear, but it has been generally more tolerant of allowing international involvement in military programmes.

The ban was put in place to keep the Raptor's high-tech systems out of the hands of foreign governments. But with US military orders for the jet lagging, members of Congress and some top staffers in the air force have become concerned that Lockheed may shut down the plane's production line in coming years.

The $70 billion fighter programme is one of Lockheed's largest, employing more than 4,500 workers in Georgia and Texas and bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue.

The Pentagon has steadily lowered the number of F-22s it planned to purchase from the 750 it thought it needed to face off against the Soviet Union nearly 20 years ago -- down to 183. As with the older F-16, foreign purchases could keep the Raptor in business.

Lockheed and some in the air force began making a case for overseas sales of the fighter early this year as the Pentagon lowered the number of planes it would buy to save $10 billion over the next few years.

Until that point, Lockheed had expected to sell about 381 planes to the US government. The reduction prompted Lockheed to say it would have to close the F-22 production line by 2011.

Any specific sale is likely to face concerns about the export of technology that is still considered sensitive. Congress has continued funding the plane, despite its increasing cost, in part because the Raptor's technology was considered worth sustaining.

Excluding development costs that the Pentagon paid early in the programme, the price of the plane drops to between $150 million and $183 million, or even less for a stripped-down model. Foreign sales could also help defray some of the cost of the plane to the US military and keep the production line going.