The United States has strongly defended its massive military largesse to Pakistan -- which dwarfs the economic and development assistance it provides to that country -- arguing that no country in the world is as important to Washington as is Pakistan in the fight against terrorism directed at the US.

US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns in an interaction that followed his remarks on Global Challenges and Opportunities in US Foreign Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, said, ''Obviously, a central American interest would be the effectiveness of the Pakistani state and military in limiting the operations of the terrorist organizations, particularly those that are aligned against us--the Taliban and Al Qaeda [Images].''

"So we would defend military assistance to Pakistan,'' he asserted and declared, ''I would say that on a global basis, there's probably no more important country to the United States than Pakistan in the global struggle to contain and defeat the major terrorist groups.''

Burns acknowledged the contention by many at the event, that it is important to pump in more economic and development aid to Pakistan to alleviate the acute problems of education and health care that bedevil this country, and said this is why the Bush Administration has proposed to Congress to appropriate an extra $750 million over five years to funnel into these programs and help in the development of job creation in areas like North and South Waziristan.

"So, we want to go forward with that support of Congress," he said, and added, "We have also suggested that we would at the request of Pakistani authorities try to put together a Reconstruction Opportunity Zone."

Burns said this would envisage "area on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border where businesses that produce products that were important for employment generation might come to the United Stated either duty free or at very low tariff levels".

"Now that has not advanced yet," he noted. "We've introduced this in our discussions with the Congress and it hasn't been decided upon yet. That's the second economic area where we might be helpful both to Pakistan and Afghanistan."