WASHINGTON, March 26: Under a deal proposed on Friday, the United States would sell new F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan and not those that were manufactured for Islamabad in the late 1980s, the US State Department said. “These are new aircraft,” State Department’s deputy spokesman Adam Ereli told a Friday afternoon briefing in Washington when asked that the planes the Bush administration was offering to sell Pakistan were old or new. The planes built for Pakistan more than 15 years ago are now in storage in Tucson, Arizona, and in the past the US tried unsuccessfully to sell those planes to a third country. “What we’re negotiating with Pakistan on will be new planes. And as for the deals that have already been concluded, that’s a separate issue and I don’t have information to report to you on that,” said Mr Ereli.

Further clarifying the point, the State Department official said the planes for the new deal had not yet been built as the US was still negotiating the terms of the proposed sale.

On Friday afternoon, hours after senior US officials announced their plan to sell the F-16s to Pakistan, the administration formally conveyed its intention to the US Congress as well. Besides the proposed F-16 sale to Pakistan, the administration also informed Congress of its decision to share information with New Delhi on the possible sale of multi-role combat aircraft to India.

Referring to President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s forthcoming visit to India, Mr Ereli said: “All the trend lines (are) going in a positive direction and you have a process of engagement and a process of dialogue that is producing results.” At an earlier briefing, partly reported on Saturday, senior US officials said the proposed F-16s sale would be in addition to existing US military assistance to Pakistan.