WASHINGTON, MAY 21: Pakistan proposes to take legal action against the United States in a court in America on the issue of the stalled sale of 28 F-16 fighter jets to Islamabad after the expiry of the statute of limitations in February 1999.

The legal action was among the four options that Pakistan was considering to resolve the seven-year impasse, Pakistani Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan told reporters here.Pakistan's three other options are completing the sale and transferring the F-16s to Islamabad, scrapping the deal and returning the money, or selling the aircraft to a third country.

Gohar Khan said that the undelivered planes are parked somewhere in an Arizona desert and may have to be overhauled if they are not sent somewhere soon.``The jet engines have to be turned over every six months or the planes must be overhauled, making them second-rate,'' Gohar Khan said at a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.Albright reaffirmed a US commitment to ``follow through on this and continue to make efforts."Pakistan has paid $ 658 million dollars for the 28 fighter aircraft, which are now stored at a US air force base in Arizona. The US has repaid 150 million dollars to Pakistan since unilaterally shelving the deal.Delivery of the 71 warplanes Pakistan purchased from General Dynamics was blocked in 1990 under a 1984 law that cut off US weapons to Pakistan because of a US judgment that the South Asian country possessed a nuclear device.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.