In a sign of the increasingly close security ties between the United States and Pakistan, Pakistan's President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has accepted a U.S. request for a long-term presence at an air base in southwestern Pakistan, Pakistani security sources said, The Washington Post reports in its Friday edition. U.S. officials have requested 40,000 metric tons of concrete to renovate the base in Jacobabad, 300 miles north of Karachi, according to an aviation source, the Post reported.

“In the foreseeable future, Jacobabad air base would continue to serve as a key facility for the U.S. military's peacekeeping or counterterrorism operation in Afghanistan," said a Pakistani military official familiar with discussions on the subject, the Post said. Bureau Report