Islamabad, June 21: Despite denials by the US, Pakistan officials still fancy chances of Islamabad procuring F-16 fighter Jets through a "third country" with the nod from Washington, media reported today. There was some speculation within top levels of the Pakistani establishment that an F-16 deal through a 'third party', perhaps one of the GCC countries, may be cleared by the US government, Pakistan Daily Dawn said. Pentagon and US State Department officials as also the US Embassy here denied that US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had conveyed US decision to sell F-16s to Indian Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani.
US Embassy spokesman terry white has termed a report on this regard as incorrect.
Asked if his statement implied that the US administration was not inclined to sell F-16s to pakistan, white said, "I don't want to get into that... I won't say there are no chances at all, anything is possible."

The newspaper quoted Pakistan military officials as saying that that a list of equipment considered essential for Pakistan's defence had been shared with the US government but no indications were available so far as to what the us was willing to give. The officials said that the F-16 issue was raised during Musharraf's meetings with President George W Bush in 2001 and 2002, but the Pakistani request was not considered.

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"The United States seems quite clear about not selling any advanced weapons system to Pakistan or at least for now it is in no mood to do so," an official said.

Bureau Report