WASHINGTON, Feb 28: Two senior US senators plan to move a bill in Congress, seeking to increase the US assistance to Pakistan to help establish democracy.

Senator Joseph Biden, who is a Democrat and chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a congressional panel that this would be a bipartisan bill and be backed by the senior Republican member of the committee, Richard Lugar.

Mr Biden noted that since the US administration had already prepared its budget proposals for fiscal 2009 before the Feb 18 elections in Pakistan, he decided to move a new bill.

“There may be a possibility that we can work out something in the budget, or a supplementary right after,” he said.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who also addressed the panel, said the administration was already looking at this proposal.

He noted that since the $3 billion, five-year package for Pakistan ends next year, there’s need for new proposals for expanding US engagement with the country.

Earlier, Senator Biden had suggested tripling non-military US aid to Pakistan and had also urged Washington to give the new government in Islamabad a ‘’democracy dividend’’ of a billion dollars, and demand more transparency and accountability in military aid.

Senator Biden’s “suggestion highlights the tremendous importance of this country in the war on terror, and specific importance of Pakistan itself,” said Mr Negroponte.

He hoped that a proposed US assistance of $150 million a year for development works in the tribal area would be well-received in Pakistan.

He also described Senator Lugar’s “civilian stabilisation initiative” as a “ground-breaking idea” for encouraging democracy in the developing countries.

Mr Negroponte, however, disagreed with the suggestion that providing military aid to Pakistan gives the impression that Washington is supporting the military against democratic forces. He said the US assistance was for an institution, and not for any individual.