Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan ended talks with President Bush and other U.S. officials after winning a commitment for new F-16 fighter sales and promising not to provoke a regional arms race by producing nuclear weapons.
She made the promise in an address Wednesday to a joint meeting of Congress in which she urged the United States to work aggressively for a broad-based political settlement in Afghanistan and said that Pakistan's fledgling democracy deserves continued U.S. military and economic assistance.Bhutto, a 1974 graduate of Harvard University, was to attend Harvard's commencement ceremonies Thursday and was to address the Harvard Alumni Association.
On Friday she is scheduled to meet with officials of the United Nations in New York before leaving the United States on Saturday.
The F-16 sale, said to be worth $1.4 billion, will give Pakistan a total of 100 of the sophisticated warplanes.
The New York Times reported Thursday that unidentified Pakistani officials said Bhutto had urged the United States to try to persuade the Soviet Union to accept the departure of Afghan President Najib from office, with whom the guerrillas have refused to negotiate, as a step that could lead to negotiations.
During her visit, Bhutto and Secretary of State James A. Baker III witnessed the signing of agreements providing for $465 million to help Pakistan finance housing, narcotics and education programs.
The agreements are part of a $2.28 billion, six-year aid package designed to support Pakistan's economic development, according to the Agency for International Development. Pakistan is the third largest recipient of U.S. aid.
Pakistanis are grateful for such assistance, the prime minister told Congress, because "your military assistance has helped maintain a relative balance in the region. It has contributed to Pakistan's sense of security."
The prime minister's address was repeatedly interrupted by applause, especially when she addressed longstanding U.S. concerns that Pakistan is on the verge of acquiring nuclear arms.
"Speaking for Pakistan, I can declare that we do not possess nor do we intend to make a nuclear device; that is our policy," she said.
"We are committed to a regional approach to the nuclear problem and we remain ready to accept any safeguards, inspection and verification that are applied on a non-discriminatory regional basis," she said.
Bhutto said Pakistan has long advocated creating a nuclear weapons-free zone in south Asia and added: "A first step in that direction could be a nuclear test-ban agreement between Pakistan and its neighbors. . . . We are prepared for any negotiation to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons in our region.
"We will not provoke a nuclear arms race in the subcontinent," she said.
The prime minister mentioned no other country by name. But Pakistan's regional rival, India, which detonated a nuclear device some 15 years ago, has resisted agreeing to test-ban and nuclear weapons-free zones unless such arrangements also include China, a nuclear-weapons state.