WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States has poured nearly 40 billion dollars in aid to South Asia since the September 11 attacks but the terror threat from the region remains a top problem, a congressional hearing was told.

"South Asia is arguably the place from which America faces the greatest terrorist threat," said Gary Ackerman, the head of the House of Representatives panel on issues relating to the region that includes Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Chairing a hearing on US foreign assistance to South Asia, he said that since 2001, Washington spent 38.67 billion dollars on the region but "we are no closer than we were when we began to a peaceful, stable, secure South Asia."

The lawmaker was critical of the administration of President George W. Bush for lacking what he called an effective strategy to contain the terrorism threat from the region.

"While the president and his administration don't seem very adept when it comes to strategy, either having one or implementing one, the Bush administration is very good at spending money, lots of it and mostly on guns," he said.

Since the United States was attacked on September 11, 2004, South Asia has become second only to the Middle East in terms of US military assistance, he said, questioning the achievements of the aid.

Over the past six years, he said, Washington spent 15.6 billion dollars on training for the Afghan national army and police, "yet the army is still incapable of operating on its own and the police are so bad that most Afghans are more afraid of them than they are of the Taliban" militant group.

In Pakistan, over the same period, the Bush administration provided 1.5 billion dollars in "foreign military financing" and 5.56 billion dollars in "coalition support funds."

The military financing was to buy radars, and anti-submarine planes to track what Ackerman called "the non-existent Al-Qaeda air force and navy."

The coalition funds "disappeared into the Pakistani Treasury for unspecified services allegedly rendered," he claimed.

"Yet Pakistani officials complain, and have done so to me directly, that they lack the capabilities and training to conduct effective counter-insurgency operations," Ackerman said.
Richard Boucher, the State Department official in charge of South Asian affairs, maintained at the hearing that Washington had "made progress on a broad range of fronts" in South Asia through US and other foreign aid.

He said particular achievements included economic growth, strengthened local and national institutions, and successes in countering insurgents.

"But that's not enough and important challenges remain, most prominently in the fields of counter-terrorism, improving governments' capacity to provide basic services, and strengthening democratic practices and institutions."

Boucher said the US administration's fiscal year 2009 "base" budget request for South Asian states -- Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Maldives -- was more than two billion dollars.

Much of the request remains concentrated in Afghanistan and Pakistan, "which are key to regional stability," he said.

The State Department has also increased coordination and consultation with counterparts at the US Agency for International Development and other key providers of foreign assistance in the region, he said.

He called for greater international donor coordination as foreign assistance resources grew scarce in meeting rising needs in South Asia.

"The United States is one of the largest donors in South Asia, if not the largest. But, we can't do it all," he said.

Since 2001, he said, the international community had made multi-year financial pledges through to 2013 of assistance to Afghanistan totaling over 43 billion dollars.