But if the criticisms were familiar, they raised some cynical eyebrows here coming just three days after Washington announced plans to sell Islamabad two dozen F-16 fighter jets, ending a 15-year ban.

Perhaps more than any other country, Pakistan highlights the challenges facing President George W. Bush's administration as it tries to square its drive for global democracy with its strategic needs in the war on terror.

"Pakistan is a really difficult case," Michael Kozak, acting assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour, acknowledged this week in summing up the US approach to the government of President Pervez Musharraf.

Washington sees Islamabad as a crucial ally in its battle against terrorism, a moderating Muslim influence that cooperated in the war on Afghanistan and is helping to root out Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

The rewards for Pakistan have been plenty: three billion dollars in promised aid over five years, debt relief, negotiations on a bilateral investment treaty, and now the F-16 sale despite bitter objections from subcontinent rival India.

But critics see the administration lavishing money and attention on an autocratic regime that clandestinely developed nuclear weapons, sold the technology worldwide and is only half-heartedly battling al-Qaeda.