US House of Rep. speaker in Pakistan amid bill row

ISLAMABAD, Jan 27 (Reuters) New US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Pakistan today amid concerns over a provision in a US bill proposing restrictions on military aid to Islamabad.

Leading a seven-member delegation, Pelosi is due to meet Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

The bill, already endorsed by the House of Representatives, calls for ending U.S. military assistance to Pakistan if the country fails to stop the Taliban operating on its territory, according to Pakistani news reports.

Pakistan's leading newspaper Dawn likened the provision to the so-called Pressler Amendment to the 1985 US foreign aid bill, under which Washington blocked sales of paid-for F-16 fighter planes to Islamabad because of its nuclear programme.

''We are ... concerned with the bill's implications for Pakistan should it finally get through the Senate and have the president's assent,'' the paper said in an editorial.

Under the provision, President George W Bush has to certify to Congress that Pakistan was doing its level best to combat insurgents before releasing any new military assistance.

The Bush administration, however, believes that any such conditionality on aid to Pakistan would undermine cooperation in the war on terrorism and is trying to persuade the Congress to drop the provision before it becomes law.

''Such conditionality (would) be counterproductive to the important goal ... of fostering a closer relationship with Pakistan,'' said a statement on administration policy from Bush's office.

The legislation acknowledges Pakistan's role as an ''important partner'' in the war on terrorism but maintains that there were a number of critical issues that ''threaten to disrupt the relationship between the United States and Pakistan, undermine international security, and destabilise Pakistan''.

Pakistan has been under growing pressure from the United States and other Western countries to crack down on militants which they say have stepped up cross-border incursions into Afghanistan.

Pakistan, while admitting that some militants might be crossing the border from its territory, says the insurgency is mainly an Afghan problem.

REUTERS RL RK2001