Washington: The US military aid to Pakistan must be directly linked to its co-operation in the war against terrorism, a top Republican lawmaker said on Sunday, accusing the powerful Pakistani spy agency of supporting the Haqqani terror network involved in attacks on American soldiers in Afghanistan.

"I would gauge our aid, particularly military aid -- and we`ve given many billions.....directly related to the degree of cooperation they show us. And we have to explore all alternatives," Senator John McCain said as Pak-US ties plunged to a new low after the deadly NATO strike taht killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

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"Aid has to be gauged on the degree of cooperation that they are showing us in helping us prevent the needless deaths of young Americans. That`s our first obligation," he told the CNN in response to a question. Expressing sympathy with the families of those Pakistani soldiers that were killed in the NATO air strike last week, McCain said the fact is that there have been previous occasions where Pakistani military or others have fired across the Pakistani border into Afghanistan.

"This is a fog of war situation. An investigation is going on. But, also, the fact is that the ISI, the intelligence arm of the Pakistani Army is still supporting the Haqqani network, which is killing Americans. They is unacceptable," McCain underlined.

He said there are two fertilizer factories where the materials for which are used for IEDs that are killing Americans. "Now we tried cutting of all relations with Pakistan for 10 years. It didn`t work," the Arizona Senator said.

PTI