THE United States may sell at least nine F-16 fighter aircraft to Indonesia during the next few months in a deal that would also help resolve a dispute between Washington and Pakistan.
The F-16s were among 28 fighter planes that the US sold to Pakistan more than five years ago, but later held back under military and economic sanctions which were imposed in retaliation to Islamabad's covert nuclear programme.
The US last year promised Pakistan that it would sell the fighters to a third country and use the money towards refunding Islamabad the US$658 million (HK$5.08 billion) it paid earlier towards the purchase.
If the deal goes through and Pakistan gets its money refunded, Islamabad is expected to use those payments towards the purchase of new Mirage 2000-5 fighter planes from France.
Washington's prestigious weekly defence publication The Defence News, in a story published this week, reports that the sale may take place during the next two to three months.
'Practically all that stands in the way of the sale being made by the United States on behalf of Pakistan is for the Indonesian Government to settle on financing,' the magazine quotes R. M. Laksamana Sunardi, a staff expert to Indonesia's Minister of Defence and Security, as saying last week in an interview in Jakarta.