WASHINGTON, June 16: US President George W. Bush on Wednesday officially designated Pakistan a major non-Nato ally of the United States. A major non-Nato ally is exempted from the suspension of US military assistance and qualifies to receive surplus defence material from US stockpiles.

"Consistent with the authority vested in me by section 517 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, I hereby designate the Islamic Republic of Pakistan as a Major Non-Nato Ally of the United States," Mr Bush said.

In a brief statement issued in Tampa, Florida, where he is visiting US troops, Mr Bush authorized his Secretary of State, Colin Powell to "publish this determination in the Federal Register".

It was Mr Powell who first announced the Bush administration's intention to make Pakistan a major non-Nato ally during a visit to Islamabad on March 18. "I advised the foreign minister this morning that we will also be making a notification to our Congress that will designate Pakistan as a 'major non-Nato ally' for the purposes of our future military-to-military relations," Mr Powell told a press conference after meeting his counterpart Khurshid Kasuri.

"Major non-Nato allies are exempt from suspension of military assistance under the American Service members' Protection Act," State Department's deputy spokesman Adam Ereli told a recent briefing in Washington.

Pakistan became a close US ally after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington when President Pervez Musharraf joined the US-led "war against terror" and provided logistic support to US forces for operations against the Taliban regime.

The US had imposed strict sanctions on both India and Pakistan after they tested their nuclear devices in May 1998. The sanctions were, however, removed after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks.

The sanctions imposed under the Symington and Glenn amendments are among the strictest sanctions in the US arsenal. Imposing them can almost completely stop all major economic and military assistance to Pakistan.

The move to seek the re-imposition of nuclear-related sanctions on Pakistan started in February when Dr A.Q. Khan confessed to heading a network of nuclear proliferators that sold nuclear technology and secrets to countries like Iran, Libya and North Korea.

But as the State Department's response shows, imposing such sanctions on Pakistan has become much more difficult after its designation as a non-Nato major ally.