Lahore, Nov 19: US Defence Department officials are reportedly mulling over a plan to overhaul the system of US military aid to Pakistan.

According to the Los Angeles Times, senior Pentagon officials are likely to outline a system in which the aid will be directly linked with Islamabad’s success in combating Islamic militants.

The defence officials also want a detailed accounting of how Pakistan spends about one billion dollars in annual payments and a greater level of control by Washington over spending, the Daily Times quoted the paper, as saying.

The Pentagon is focusing on the largest and most controversial aid programme, the Coalition Support Funds (CSF).

“The proposal to link payments to specific objectives would revamp the current practice of reimbursing Pakistan for money it says it spent,” the paper said.

“In more traditional military aid programmes, US aid is subject to a series of legislative controls that occasionally require presidential action for money to be released. By contrast, the CSF has few reporting requirements beyond the claims submitted by the Pakistanis,” the news report said.

Pentagon officials are apparently frustrated for months by their limited knowledge of how Pakistan was spending the US aid.

Despite this, the daily said, proposals to cut back US assistance to Pakistan are not universally popular in the Bush administration, as many of them view Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf as a valuable ally who is committing his military forces to US objectives, often with heavy costs. (ANI)