US rejects calls for changing aid programme for Pakistan's anti-terror efforts

NEW YORK, May 20 (APP):The Bush administration has brushed aside some suggestions for cutting off money that the United States pays Pakistan for conducting counter-terrorism efforts or even linking it to performance, The New York Times reported Sunday.Such a course would further destabilize President Gen.  Pervez Musharraf, who is is already under pressure at home, the newspaper said, citing unnamed current and former officials.In a front page dispatch, based on a team effort, The Times said the payment involved is roughly $1 billion a year that Pakistan calls reimbursements to its military for the cost of the operations along the border with Afghanistan. So far, it said, Pakistan has received more than $5.6 billion under the programme over five years, more than half of the total aid the United States has sent to Islamabad since the Sept.  11, 2001, attacks.

Asked why Pakistan was being paid even the after publicly declaring that it is significantly cutting back on its patrols in the most important border area, a spokesman for Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, emphasized Pakistan's strategic importance in the region.

'Pakistan's cooperation is very important in the global war on terror and for our operations in Afghanistan," Spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. "Our investments in that partnership have paid off over time, from increased information sharing to kills and captures of key terrorist operatives. There is more work to be done, the Pakistanis know that, and we are engaged with the Musharraf government to ramp up the fight."

Pakistan's Ambassador to Washington, Mahmud Ali Durrani, who was interviewed by the Times, said that the agreements with tribal elders were working and that  Pakistani military activities on the border itself were increasing. He said that Pakistan was being properly reimbursed for fuel, munitions and wear and tear on military equipment. "There are multiple small and big operations going on, we have deployed troops along the border," he was quoted as saying.  "There is a lot of coordination."

The Pakistani ambassador, denied allegations that Pakistani troops were failing to stop Taliban fighters at the border.  He said the troops were carrying out joint operations with American forces based inside Afghanistan.

The ambassador called the reports of direct Pakistani military support for the Taliban "preposterous." He said the Pakistani military, which has lost 700 soldiers fighting militants in the tribal areas, would never tolerate such activity from its soldiers. "If even once this happens," he said, "the whole system will come down like a ton of bricks on this person."