Bush, Pakistan's Musharraf meet

CAMP DAVID, Md. -- It's only a matter of time before Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein are captured or accounted for, President Bush said Tuesday as he announced $3 billion in military and economic aid to reward Pakistan for its help in the war on terror.

Missing from the package were 28 F-16 jet fighters long sought by Pakistan but blocked by Congress because of Islamabad's nuclear weapons program.

At a joint news conference at the president's Maryland retreat, Bush and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf claimed a united front against terrorism.

Musharraf said his government was making extraordinary efforts to track down bin Laden and his lieutenants, searching treacherous tribal border areas he said had not been entered by the army in over a century.

He suggested that bin Laden could well be hiding in such an area along the border with Afghanistan,

But, he told a reporter, "Whether Osama bin Laden is here or across the border, your guess, sir, would be as good as mine, so I wouldn't like to venture into a guess."

Over 500 arrests

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Musharraf's government has arrested more than 500 al-Qaida and Taliban terrorists, Bush noted.

"Today, both countries are working with the Afghan government to build a stable democratic Afghanistan with secure border regions that are free from terror and free from extremism," Bush said. "Pakistan and the United States also share a determination to bring ... the benefits of security and freedom to the people of Iraq," he added.

Asked about the fact that the fates of both bin Laden and Saddam remain unknown, Bush said, "There's more than two principles at large. ... There are others around, too. And we're just on the hunt."

Bush said it could take days, months or years before the United States and its allies complete the search for terrorist leaders. "And we'll find them. It's only a matter of time," he said.

Bush announced a trade agreement with Pakistan designed to lead to an easing of trade and investment barriers and said he will send Congress a $3 billion, five-year package of unspecified military and economic aid.

Previously, the United States canceled $1 billion of debt Pakistan owed to the United States.

Bush was asked by a Pakistani reporter whether, despite warming ties between the two countries, the United States was continuing to hold up the F-16s bought by Pakistan 13 years ago but never delivered.

Congress has blocked completion of the sale because of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and the 1999 coup that brought Musharraf to power.

Musharraf had been expected to raise the issue anew with Bush.

"You are never going to escape this," he teased Bush.

"Let me say, the president is not afraid to bring up the issue of F-16s," Bush said of the Pakistani leader. "He has been a strong advocate for the sale of F-16s to Pakistan." Still, Bush added, F-16s would not be included in the aid package.

Musharraf was the first South Asian to get an invitation to Camp David and he thanked Bush for the gesture.

Bush has gone out of his way to reward U.S. allies in the war on terror and in the U.S.-led war in Iraq with invitations to either the presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains or to his ranch in central Texas.

Bush said he was encouraged by progress India and Pakistan have made in easing tensions over Kashmir and on other issues. He also praised Musharraf for setting out to build "a modern Pakistan that is tolerant and prosperous."

That, Bush added, "will require movement toward democracy," particularly in enhancing the rights of women and girls.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee initiated a thaw in relations with Pakistan in April, offering "a hand of friendship." The effort has appeared to falter since then.

As part of the war on terror, the Bush administration is pressing Pakistan to end its help for militant groups in India-controlled parts of the Kashmir region.

The disputed territory, three-fifths of which is under Indian rule, has been a flash point in India-Pakistan relations for half a century. India accuses Pakistan of training and arming Islamic militants in Kashmir, which Pakistan denies.

Both presidents deflected questions about the relative sizes of India's and Pakistan's nuclear arsenals and the fact that Musharraf, an Army general, came to power in a coup.

"Over the last 50 years, five decades, we have had dysfunctional democracy in Pakistan. What I am doing, really, is to introduce sustainable democracy," Musharraf said.