Washington, June 2 : Pakistan Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh, while presenting the federal budget, had said that the country is still awaiting payments of up to 1.2 billion dollars from the U. S. in the form of Coalition Support Fund (CSF) payments that the U. S. has been giving to Pakistan since 2002, in exchange for support in the war against terror.

The U. S., however, has denied this, saying that 8.8 billion dollars have been approved for Pakistan in CSF payments, reports The Express Tribune.

"We have still not received nearly 1.2 billion dollars in CSF, which had an effect both on our external receipts as well as on the budget," Shaikh was quoted, as saying.

Commander Bill Speaks, a U. S. Department of Defense spokesperson, stated that while the department does not discuss claims, said the DoD "has approved more than 8.8 billion dollars in CSF reimbursements to Pakistan since 2002." He added that CSF was one of the issues that the U. S. was discussing with Pakistan as part of their "broad engagement" with the government of the country.

Speaks also said the last CSF reimbursement to Pakistan, which stood at 633 million dollars, was on December 24, 2010.

However, when President Asif Ali Zardari reportedly raised the issue of CSF payments with U. S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton in their meeting on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Chicago in May, he claimed that Pakistan had not received any funds since July 2010. (ANI)