WASHINGTON, Feb 16: Pakistan does not want to enter into an arms race with India though it realizes that the balance of power in South Asia has tilted in New Delhi's favour, says Ambassador Jehangir Karamat.

The Pakistani envoy told a group of journalists at the embassy on Tuesday that Pakistan did not want to 'match or balance' the weapons India was trying to buy from various sources, including the United States.

"We, instead, remain interested in maintaining our deterrence and defence capabilities," he added. "Now it's up to the US to define what defence capabilities they can give us."

Commenting on India's interest in buying F-16 aircraft from the US, the former army chief said he believed India would be more comfortable with French, Russian or Swedish aircraft because of its familiarity with them.

"We, in Pakistan, are familiar with the F-16s, so we want them. But we do not want to enter into a controversy with India over the F-16s." The ambassador said that defence talks between the US and Pakistan were 'very satisfactory' and were fulfilling Pakistan's requirements for military training and hardware.

Pakistan, he said, was receiving TOW missiles, Phalanx weapon systems, P-3 Orion surveillance planes, Bell helicopters and C-130 aircraft from the United States. He said that out of a total of 28, Pakistan had already received 24 two-engine Bell helicopters.

The ambassador said the United States, which had separate relationships with Pakistan and India, must see to the positives and the negatives involved, and decide which defence systems could trigger imbalance in the region.

Commenting on a media report that the CIA had predicted that Pakistan would become a 'failed state by 2015', the ambassador said this was a five-year-old report. He said in his discussions with US officials, lawmakers and academics he never heard anyone say that Pakistan would collapse by 2015.

"International institutions portray a positive outlook of Pakistan. They say that Pakistan is destined to progress and prosper, becoming a powerful nation." The ambassador said that former US president Bill Clinton and his wife Senator Hillary Clinton would separately visit Pakistan soon. The senator, he said, would lead a group of US lawmakers.

The ambassador, who met a number of US senators and congressmen this month, said that 'this interaction has been immensely useful' in exchanging views on matters of bilateral interest.

Besides Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator Lincoln Chafee, chairman of the South Asia Sub-Committee, ambassador Karamat also met Congressman Tom Lantos, a Democrat from California, and Rep. Joseph Pitts, a Republican from Pennsylvania.

The ambassador said that during the next few weeks several important visitors would be coming to the United States from Pakistan as well. They include Chairman of Senate Mohammad mian Soomro, Governor of State Bank of Pakistan Ishrat Hussain and Federal Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi.