U.S. civilian aid to Pakistan unchanged

U.S. military assistance, not civilian aid, is the only thing on the cutting block for Pakistan, a U.S. State Department official said. Washington has said it was considering cutting as much as 30 percent of the $2 billion allocated to assist Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies in the fight against al-Qaida and Taliban guerrillas in neighboring Afghanistan. The cutback comes as Islamabad said it was kicking U.S. Special Forces out of the country. Islamabad following the May raid that killed Osama bin Laden said the United States was ignoring its sovereignty. Some officials in Washington have said Islamabad isn't trustworthy enough while Islamabad complains cutting assistance would undermine bilateral ties. Victoria Nuland, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, said it would be difficult to continue some military operations in Pakistan given increased acrimony. Civilian assistance, however, "continues unchanged," she told reporters. Nuland added that Washington supports bilateral decisions between Pakistan and Afghanistan to form a security group to examine border issues. "We call on both sides to continue to engage cooperatively to lower tensions on the border and to ensure the protection of the local population in the border regions," she said in a statement.