ISLAMABAD, March 30: US ambassador Ryan C. Crocker on Wednesday said a technical team would arrive here next month to discuss specifics related to the sale of F-16s to Pakistan. Mr Croker was talking to newsmen soon after launching the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded Poverty Alleviation Programme. The USDA has given a $25 million grant to the Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund for the project.

Mr Crocker did not mention the exact date of arrival of the US technical team and said that it would be here next month to finalize the sale of F-16 jets. He said the $3 billion assistance announced by President George Bush in the summer of 2003 for Pakistan was getting under way this year. Under the programme Pakistan would get $600 million annual tranche equally divided between military and economic.

However, Mr Crocker said the US was also helping Pakistan apart from the main package. That’s why, he said, the overall assistance for the current year had touched $700 million. He said the US wanted strong and “full-scale strategic relationship” with Pakistan. The importance the US attached to its relations with Pakistan could be gauged from the fact that Secretary of State Dr Condoleezza Rice visited the country just two months after taking her new office, the ambassador maintained.

Replying to a question, he said Kashmir “is an old and difficult issue”. However, the over-all progress on the issue was encouraging. The launching of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service would provide an opportunity to the Kashmiris on both sides to meet, he said.

Earlier, speaking at the ceremony, Mr Croker said the USDA had awarded $25 million to the PPAF because of the good work it had performed during such as short time. The important message of the US assistance was not only economic growth but social development also, he added.