WASHINGTON, April 16: Pakistan enjoys a key place in a US plan to train and equip foreign militaries and for deploying civilian experts to fight terrorism.

The plan — presented before a congressional panel on Tuesday by three senior members of the Bush administration — involves flexible use of Pentagon funds for traditional State Department activities in foreign assistance.

Three senior Bush officials — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen — underlined Pakistan as a country that enjoys a key place in the US strategy for fighting terrorism.

“Supplying helicopter spare parts, night vision devices, and night flight training to enhance Pakistan’s special forces’ ability to help fight Al Qaeda in the northwest territories,” said Mr Gates while explaining how the administration intends to spend hundreds of millions of dollars it is seeking for the programme.

He said that the US assistance will go beyond the military to security services because in some countries other security services are also involved in the war against terror. “In Pakistan, the Frontier Corps is not a part of the military,” he added.Secretary Rice, who is seeking $248 million to create a corps of 3,750 diplomats and other civilians to serve abroad under the new plan, included Pakistan, along with Afghanistan and Iraq, in high priority areas.

She said that some of the 300 US officers recently redeployed out of Europe were also sent to Pakistan to “take on higher-priority tasks.”

Admiral Mullen said that Pakistan will receive “the full spectrum” of “tactical communications, maritime security, and night vision kinds of flying opportunities.”

Congressman Ike Skelton, who chairs the House Committee on Armed Services, urged the administration to devote more resources to the tribal areas.

“When we know that the most likely source of an attack upon our nation is coming from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, I have a hard time understanding why Iraq is priority one instead of Afghanistan being priority number one,” he said.

The proposed plan allows both Defence and State departments to help allied nations build forces to counter terrorists and other threats.

Ms Rice and Mr Gates are seeking to increase funding authority for the Global Train and Equip programme from $300 million to $750 million a year.