WASHINGTON, March 25: Pakistan will be a principal beneficiary of a $1.5 billion assistance package the Bush administration is seeking from Congress to help its coalition partners cope with the effects of the war, a senior US official said on Tuesday. While giving a break-up of the funds the administration has requested for the war in Iraq and for fighting terrorism, the official said: “There is a $1.5 billion for coalition partners. This is principally Pakistan.” The official did not say how much of the $1.5 billion he mentioned as separate assistance for coalition partners would go to Pakistan.

Another close US ally, Turkey, will get $1 billion in aid, far less than the reported $6 billion it would have received had it allowed some 62,000 US troops to be deployed along its borders.

Turkey has now allowed the US to use its space for carrying out airstrikes into Iraq but Washington has already made it clear that this would not revive the economic package it had earlier offered to Turkey.