December 15, 2001	Saturday	Ramazan 29, 1422

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KARACHI, Dec 14: In a sign of the increasingly close security ties between the United States and Pakistan, President

Gen Pervez Musharraf, has accepted a US request for a long-term presence at Jacobabad air base, Pakistani security sources said.

US officials have requested 40,000 metric tons of concrete to renovate the base in Jacobabad, according to an aviation source. US officials have asked that a wall surrounding the base be raised four feet, and they want to construct air-conditioned barracks for US troops in time for summer.

“In the foreseeable future, Jacobabad air base would continue to serve as a key facility for the US military’s peacekeeping or counterterrorism operation in Afghanistan,” said a Pakistani military official familiar with discussions on the subject.

US officials have asked that all but a few Pakistani liaison officers be withdrawn from the base, the aviation source said. —Dawn/LAT-WP News Service (c) The Washington Post