Islamabad insisted the sale should not harm the year-old thaw in relations with New Delhi while analysts said bigger, richer India would still have a military advantage.

"We welcome this good gesture and it shows good friendship between Pakistan and the United States," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told AFP.

"They have offered us the latest version and it is unlimited numbers. It has pleased the people of Pakistan."

The sale comes a week after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discussed the issue with both Pakistan and India and days after Pakistan's military ruler President Pervez Musharraf said his country faced no external threat.

New Delhi had strongly opposed the sale when the topic was raised.

Pakistan, which already has F-16s in its air force, has been seeking additional multi-role fighter jets since 1990 when a deal for 40 such planes fell through because of US concerns over the country's nuclear programme.

The sale has become a national cause in Pakistan, constantly debated in the media, and pictures of F-16s can often be seen painted on taxis, buses and public buildings.

Relations between the United States and Pakistan warmed up after Islamabad allied with Washington to help topple the hardline Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001.

US President George W. Bush telephoned Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to inform him of the decision on the aircraft, an Indian government spokesman told the Press Trust of India.

Singh expressed "great disappointment at this decision", pointing out that it could have "negative consequences for India's security environment," the spokesman said.

Pakistan's Rashid said there was no need for neighbouring India to be angry. "We want good relations with them. We have no objection if India gets anything, they can also buy the aircraft."

Ties between India and Pakistan have warmed since a peace process was launched in January last year, with both sides boosting transport and communication links and people-to-people contacts.

Musharraf said in a speech to mark Pakistan's National Day on Wednesday that the country faces "no external threat" in a changing region and that its main challenges were extremism, terrorism and sectarianism.

"This will not have lasting negative implications because the balance of power in the region continues to be tilted decisively in favour of India," Hasan Askari, a defence analyst and former head of the political science department at Punjab University in Lahore, told AFP.

The decision was announced on the same day that Pakistan said it could assist an investigation by the UN's atomic watchdog agency into whether Iran has been secretly developing nuclear weapons.

Musharraf said Friday that Pakistan may send centrifuge parts for tests by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to help its probe, in a turnaround from Islamabad's previously stated position.

"Any negative domestic fallout from Musharraf's willingness to cooperate with the IAEA can be countered by this good news that Pakistan will be ultimately receiving the F-16 fighter planes," said Riffat Hussain, head of the strategic studies department at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.