June 28, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 27,1424

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WASHINGTON, June 27: President Pervez Musharraf hopes the United States will sell unmanned Predator surveillance drones to his armed forces, which he says are needed to track down Al Qaeda terror suspects, a report said on Friday.

Gen Musharraf told the Washington Times that his armed forces knew how to fight but needed sophisticated equipment and would go elsewhere if the US refused to provide it.

He also made a new pitch for F-16 warplanes which Pakistan ordered but which were never delivered. “Just give us technical assistance. Tell us where these people are,” said Musharraf, who on Friday left Washington for California on the latest leg of his American tour.

“Locate them for us. Locate them with your satellites; use your UAVs; give us the UAVs. Give us the eyes and ears and we will act,” Musharraf told Times editors and reporters on Thursday. —AFP