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Washington offers Pakistani president US$3 billion in aid

US President George W. Bush on Tuesday proposed a US$3 billion aid package to Pakistan for its help in the US-led war on terrorism, but did not offer the fighter jets long sought by Islamabad.

"Greater economic development is ... critical to fulfilling the hopes of the Pakistani people," Bush told a news conference with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf at the Camp David presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains.

In their private talks, Bush put pressure on Musharraf, a military coup leader, to move toward democracy and stop militant extremists from launching attacks on neighboring Afghanistan from Pakistan, a senior US official said.

Many al-Qaeda leaders fled across the mountainous border to Pakistan when US forces toppled the Taliban from control of Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Musharraf said al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden may be moving between Afghanistan and Pakistan in a "treacherous" border area.

Bush said the leadership of al-Qaeda was being dismantled slowly but surely. "It could take a day, or it could take a month, it could take years," he said.

Bush pressured Musharraf to halt any Pakistani proliferation of nuclear or missile technology to North Korea or elsewhere. Musharraf pledged to do nothing that would cause Washington concern, the US official said.

At the news conference, Bush praised Musharraf's leadership in fighting al-Qaeda and in helping ease tensions with India over the disputed Kashmir region.

The senior official said Bush offered US assistance on Kashmir, leaving it up to the two sides to decide what the US role should be.
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