February 4, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 2,1423

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WASHINGTON, Feb 3: A 25 per cent increase in US funding for poor nations will not benefit Pakistan which is already receiving a $305 million package of economic assistance from Washington.

The package, approved by the Senate last Thursday, includes debt relief and other assistance.

“Out of these $200 million is for debt write off,” said Mushataq Malik, the economic minister at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington.

Pakistan owed a total of $2.9 billion to the United States. During President Pervez Musharraf’s visit to the United States last year, President George W. Bush had announced an economic package for Pakistan which included a $1 billion debt relief for the debt-ridden nation.

Despite the relief, Pakistan will still have to pay $1.9 billion to the United States.

The $305 million package also includes $50 million for education, health and democracy, $50 million for defence purchase, $4 million for narcotics control and law and order and $1 million for military training.

Meanwhile, President Bush has proposed a 25 per cent increase in US funding — to a total of $1.5 billion — to provide famine relief worldwide.

On Monday, the White House asked Congress to approve $1.2 billion in emergency aid in the 2004 US budget for famine relief across the world.

The amount equals what Bush requested for 2003. Lawmakers have yet to approve the final amounts, even though the fiscal year began last Oct 1. For 2002, Congress allocated $850 million for hunger aid.

The president is also seeking an additional $300 million to set up two new funds.

One, totalling $100 million, would fund the US response primarily through means other than direct aid to complex and unforeseen food needs, a White House fact sheet said.

The other, a $200 million famine fund, would bring immediate assistance to Africa and other regions facing starvation, through direct food purchases or cash support of farmers’ production.

In his State of the Union address last week, Mr Bush announced $10 billion in new money and $5 billion in already allocated assistance over five years to provide AIDS drugs to two million Africans, help prevent seven million new infections and care for those infected with the virus and children orphaned by the disease. It is targeted at 12 African and two Caribbean nations.

Announcing the US budget earlier on Monday, Mr Bush said the budget for 2004 meets the challenges posed by three national priorities: “winning the war against terrorism, securing the homeland, and generating long-term economic growth.”

“We remain at war with an enemy that seeks to use murder, stealth, and fear against all free nations. Yet our response has been resolute. The people of Afghanistan have been freed from the oppressive regime that sponsors the terrorists who planned and carried out the attacks of Sept 11, 2001. We are hunting down the terrorist leaders and their collaborators, one by one. And we continue to disrupt their plots, shut down their financing, and deny them safe haven,” said the American president.

Here are the basic features of the 2004 budget released on Monday:

- Total government spending in FY 2004 will be $2.2 trillion, a 4.2 per cent increase over 2003 levels.

- Discretionary government spending will increase by 4 per cent, comparable to the growth in family budgets, and enough to allow the federal government to meet its important priorities.

- The fastest growing major category of discretionary spending is homeland security at 5.5 per cent. Defence grows at 4.2 per cent. The total of all other discretionary spending grows at 3.8 per cent, funding important priorities such as education, health, energy and the environment.

- The president’s budget increases non-defence homeland security funding by 7.6 per cent.