A senior U. S. State Department official, days after the United States and India concluded what was billed a strategic dialogue, said that Washington would press ahead with plans to supply Pakistan with combat aircraft.

The move was intended to intensify joint efforts to crack down on militants acting with impunity along the country's borders with Afghanistan, said Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake. He also underscored the significance of the supply, saying it reflected a changing nature in bilateral defense ties.

Blake was quoted saying, "We have had a good dialogue with our Indian friends about this important matter. We assure our Indian friends that the arms sale to Pakistan, the character and the nature of our military relationship is really changing now in Pakistan."

Bent on bolstering its military might, India announced plans recently to spend up to $30 billion on its military by 2012. In recent months, for example it inducted a long-range nuclear-tipped missile into its armed forces, unveiling, also, a defense spending budget spiked by 24 percent since last year.

With leading officials billing India's drive a "massive militarization," the moves have Pakistan fretting.

Since winning independence in 1947, India has fought three wars with Pakistan. Fifteen years later, in engaged in a brief but bitter war over a border dispute that still remains unsettled.

Earlier this year, the United States unveiled plans to provide Pakistan with 12 unmanned spy drones to boost surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities over its border regions where militant groups stage routine attacks against U. S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Sify. com, an Indian news portal, has reported that to challenge such attacks, the United States says it will deliver 18 F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan by the end of this month. The supply, though, will come under stringent conditions, including assurances that Islamabad "will not use the planes in any conflict with India." (With Inputs from Agencies)