WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - The leaders of a U.S.House-Senate negotiating panel have agreed to freeze $700million in U.S. aid to Pakistan until it offers to help in thefight against improvised explosive devices in the region,exerting more pressure on a troubled strategic ally.
Pakistan is one of the largest recipients of U.S. foreignaid, and the cutback announced is only a small proportion of thebillions in civil and military assistance it gets a year.
But it could presage greater cuts as calls grow in theUnited States to penalise Islamabad for failing to act againstmilitant groups and, at worst, helping them, following thesecret U.S. raid on a Pakistan military town in which al Qaedaleader Osama bin Laden was killed.
Home-made bombs or improvised explosive devices (IEDs) areamong militants' most effective weapons against U.S. andcoalition troops in Afghanistan as they struggle to fight aresurgent Taliban insurgency.
Many are made using ammonium nitrate, a common fertilizershipped across the border from Pakistan. The freeze on U.S. aidwas agreed as part of a defense bill that is expected to bepassed this week.
The United States wants "assurances that Pakistan iscountering improvised explosive devices in their country thatare targeting our coalition forces", Representative HowardMcKeon, a House Republican, told reporters.
The United States has allocated some $20 billion in securityand economic aid to Pakistan since 2001, much of it in the formof reimbursements for assistance in fighting militants.
But U.S. lawmakers have expressed increasing frustrationwith Pakistan's efforts in the war.
There have been numerous proposals to make U.S. aid toPakistan conditional on more cooperation in fighting militantssuch as the Haqqani network Washington believes operate out ofPakistan and battle U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
But Pakistan's civilian leaders have in the past warnedagainst aid cuts, saying it would only harden public opinionagainst the United States.
It says it is doing all it can to fight al Qaeda and theTaliban and has lost thousands of soldiers since it joined theU.S.-led war in 2001, some of them at the hands of coalitiontroops.
It has accused NATO of deliberately killing 24 Pakistanisoldiers in an air strike near the Afghan border last month andshut down supplies for foreign troops in Afghanistan in anger.
U.S. lawmakers said that many Afghan bombs are made withfertilizer smuggled by militants across the border from Pakistaninto Afghanistan.
"The vast majority of the material used to make improvisedexplosive devices used against U.S. forces in Afghanistanoriginates from two fertilizer factories inside Pakistan,"Senator John McCain, a Republican, said in the Senate last week.
The provision freezing $700 million in aid was agreed uponby leaders of the armed services committees from both parties inthe House and Senate, including McCain. It is part of compromiselegislation authorizing U.S. defense programs expected to beapproved this week, McKeon said.
He said the bill would also require the Pentagon to delivera strategy for improving the effectiveness of U.S. aid toPakistan.
(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani) ((susan.cornwell@thomsonreuters.com; +1 202 898-8300; ReutersMessaging: susan.cornwell.reuters.com@reuters.net) (Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)