WASHINGTON, June 17: The United States will replace two P-3 Orion surveillance planes destroyed in a terrorist attack in Karachi last month, diplomatic sources, who spoke to Dawn, confirmed.

The Washington Post and DawnNews reported earlier that the US had offered to replace the two planes destroyed in the May 22 militant attack on PNS Mehran in Karachi.

Under an agreement, the United States will provide nine P-3 Orion aircraft to Pakistan to enhance its surveillance capabilities.

Pakistan had already received five, of which two were destroyed in Karachi. Four more are being upgraded in the US before their transfer to Pakistan. The two replacements will increase the total to 11.

The Post reported that Pakistan too would continue its cooperation with US Special Forces, although on a less visible scale.

The Pakistanis will take over what had been a joint training mission for the Frontier Corps at Warsak. But over the next few months, the overall US Special Forces presence will probably return to roughly what it was before the recent flap.

Pakistan had earlier persuaded the US to withdraw most of its 135 Special Forces personnel from the country following a dispute over the arrest of a CIA agent in Lahore early this year.

Tensions between the two nations increased further after the May 2 raid at Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad because the US failed to warn Pakistan before the attack.

The Post reported that the United States had also promised to consult Pakistan over a possible political settlement in Afghanistan.

A team working for Marc Grossman, the US special representative overseeing those negotiations, recently visited Islamabad to brief Pakistani officials on the issue.

The United States has rejected speculations that Ayman al-Zawahiri’s promotion to lead Al Qaeda would affect US-led peace efforts in Afghanistan.

“I’m not sure it’s a position anybody should aspire to, under the circumstances,” US Defence Secretary Robert Gates told a briefing in Washington. “I think he will face some challenges. Osama bin Laden has been the leader of Al Qaeda, essentially since its inception. In that particular context, he had a peculiar charisma that I think Zawahiri does not have.” Bin Laden, Mr Gates noted, was much more operationally engaged than Zawahiri had been. “I’ve read that there is some suspicion within Al Qaeda of Zawahiri because he’s Egyptian,” he said.