WASHINGTON, Feb 15: The Obama administration has proposed to Congress a total of $3.1 billion for Pakistan in the next fiscal year, which begins on Oct 1, a senior US official said on Tuesday.

Briefing journalists on the US budget proposals released on Monday, the official said the administration had broken up its programme for Pakistan into two parts of the budget.

One part consists of enduring budget and the other comes from the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund.

The administration is seeking $1.9 for Pakistan from the State Department's enduring budget and $1.2 billion from the OCO.

“We're making the decision to give these funds both on military aid and economic assistance for one reason and one reason only, which is our national security,” said US Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Thomas Nides while justifying budget requests for Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Of the $1.9 billion, about $1.5 billion is annual money to be allocated under the Kerry-Lugar-Berman five-year aid programme. It includes $350 million in foreign military financing programmes, which is part of the five-year agreement between the two countries. Some USAID operating expenses are also included.

Under the OCO, $1.1 billion is to be devoted to the Pakistan Counter-insurgency Capability Fund, which is a programme that the two countries have worked jointly with the departments of Defence and State.

The PCCF seeks to train Pakistani forces for a more effective fight against insurgents along the country's western border with Afghanistan.

The OCO also includes about $146 million for US operational expenditures. “So the unique part of the budget, the extraordinary part of the budget is the PCCF. The enduring part of the budget is more of our economic and military assistance that's going to be sustainable over the long-term,” the US official said.

For the first time, funding for US military and diplomatic activities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq is given its own category in the proposed budget, entitled “Overseas Contingency Operations”.

The term came into use early in the Obama presidency as a replacement for the Bush-era phrase “war on terror”.

The special funding would give the State Department a further $8.7 billion, the majority of which is allocated to operations in Iraq.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the extra funds are necessary to consolidate hard-won gains.

The State Department says the need to support another civilian surge is also behind the requested $2.2 billion increase for its efforts in Afghanistan. “We've already surged civilians in Afghanistan,” said Deputy Secretary Nides. “Now our challenge is to sustain our presence and build on our military gains and show results.”

Other proposed increases to the State Department's budget are requested for food security and global health initiatives.