November 5, 2003	Wednesday	Ramazan 9, 1424

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WASHINGTON, Nov 4: The United States will ask Congress to give $2.22 billion in military aid to Israel for the fiscal year 2005, the US State Department announced on Tuesday.

Israel’s procurement of F-16I combat jets is the largest item in the US military aid budget, at $4.5 billion. It is the largest arms deal in Israeli history.

Israeli and US officials held several meetings in Washington in recent days at which Israel asked for special aid to preserve its qualitative military edge over the neighbouring Arab nations.

The US Department of State announced that it would seek funding for this purpose and that it planned to participate with Israel in several research and development programmes. One of these programmes is the M-THEL short-range missile and Katyusha rocket interception system, formerly known as Nautilus.

The new aid pledge is $60 million more than in 2004. The increase is in line with a 1990s agreement which reduces economic assistance to Israel by $120 million a year, while adding $60 million a year to the military component of the package, the largest Washington gives to any country.

The State Department said the Bush administration was committed to enhancing Israeli security and “maintaining Israeli qualitative edge over any combination of adversaries”.

The $9 billion is liable to deductions equivalent to the Israeli government’s spending on settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, but the United States has given Israel clearance to begin borrowing before deciding how much it will deduct.

Egypt and Jordan, who have both signed peace treaties with Israel, receive $1.3 billion and about $225 million respectively in military aid from Washington annually.