US eyes big Indo-Pak arms sales in 2006

In the past week, US Vice President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have made separate visits, not announced in advance, to Pakistan, a key ally in the US-declared war on terrorism.

Islamabad will make up its mind in the coming year on a US offer to resume F-16 fighter aircraft sales after a 16-year break, Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri was quoted by the Associated Press of Pakistan as saying after Cheney left.

Earlier this month, Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kohler, head of the Pentagon's Defence Security Cooperation Agency, said he expected Pakistan to modify buying plans because of the Oct. 8 earthquake that killed more than 73,000 people.

"I think that what we were ready to do right before the earthquake is probably going to have to change," Kohler said in a Dec. 7 interview with Reuters in Washington.

"We'll get back with Pakistan early in the new year and see what they want to do," he added. Before the temblor, Pakistan had asked about buying as many as 75 new F-16C/D models and 11 refurbished F-16s, Kohler said in May.

The single-engine multi-role F-16 is built by Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp. New purchases would boost a fleet of about 32 F-16s acquired before Congress cut off sales in 1990 over Pakistan's nuclear programme.

In May, the Pentagon told Congress it was proposing to let Pakistan buy 300 AIM-9M-1/2 "Sidewinder" heat-seeking, air-to-air missiles and 60 Harpoon missiles with a combined value of up to $226 million.

Separately, the United States is poised to push in the new year for major arms sales to India, a hedge against China's growing regional military clout and influence.

The Bush administration is weighing, among other things, whether to let India buy a state-of-the-art radar system as part of a US bid for a potential $5 billion contract to supply 126 multi-role fighters, Kohler said in the interview.

The possible supply of Active Electronically Scanned Array Radar, or AESA, would boost US prospects against expected competition from Sweden, France and Russia. The technology is meant to let US fighters detect and destroy enemy aircraft at significantly longer ranges.

An Indian purchase of either the F-16 or the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet built by Boeing Co., the other US fighter on offer, would cement a sea change in US-Indian bilateral ties since the end of the Cold War.