WASHINGTON, Aug 20: The United States Congress can send a strong message of friendship to Pakistan by passing the $3 billion aid package President George Bush has pledged, Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca told the house international relations committee on Thursday.

The five-year package is payable in annual instalments. The House of Representatives has approved the first instalment of $701 million for the next financial year. It is now awaiting the Senate's approval.

The next four instalments will be of $600 million each, evenly divided between military and economic assistance. "Passage of the president's request for multi-year aid package for Pakistan is critical," Ms Rocca said. "This will be the most effective evidence that we will be a reliable long-term partner for Pakistan," she said.

Bolstering Pakistan's military capabilities, she said, "has been one of our top priorities. In keeping with our desire to build a long-term relationship, we have sought generally to respond to Pakistan's legitimate defence needs."

Ms Rocca, who is in charge of South Asian affairs in the State Department, was explaining her department's strategy for dealing with terrorism to the committee. She said that since September 2001, 172 Pakistani officers had attended US military schools. The US, she said, provided $3.13 million for training the officers from its international military education and training funds.

"During the same period, the US also provided $374 million in foreign military financing funds to repair older US equipment in Pakistan's inventory and deliver some important new (equipment)."

The new equipment would improve Pakistan's communications and helicopter lift capabilities that directly support Islamabad's counter-terror operations, she said. As a means to foster greater understanding with the people of Pakistan, the US had provided $19 million for programmes aimed at making Pakistan's democracy more participatory, representative and accountable, she said.

The US, she said, was spending more than $154 million from its international narcotics and law-enforcement fund to help Pakistan improve its enforcement capabilities, promote police reform, fight drug trafficking and guard the previously un-policed Afghan border.

Ms Rocca said Pakistan was "a full ally against terror," supporting military operations in Afghanistan and moving aggressively against terrorists within its own borders. She praised Pakistan for undertaking "effective" operations against Al Qaeda operatives in the country as well as along the border with Afghanistan.

Pakistan's campaign against terrorism, she said, had provided valuable information about threats and plots against the US. She urged US lawmakers to combine America's counter-terrorism efforts with sound policies to revive Pakistan's economy.

"The Pakistani economy will have to maintain its current growth rate for years if it is to reduce poverty significantly and give ordinary Pakistanis genuine hope for a better life," she said.

Ms Rocca said that the 9/11 attacks set in motion events that transformed the US-Pakistan relationship. "Without Pakistani help, our victory in Afghanistan would have been far more costly and difficult," she said.

Ms Rocca observed that peace between Pakistan and India would help calm the extremist impulses in the region and that's why the US had sought to foster reconciliation between them.