"If I could craft it to allocate those resources to do specific things, I'd have a priority list of where I'd like to see it applied to," the official said.
The official and others described the Pentagon's efforts on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship.
However, proposals to cut back U.S. assistance to Pakistan are not universally popular in the Bush administration, where many view Musharraf as a valuable ally who is committing his military forces to U.S. objectives, often with heavy costs.
Pentagon officials emphasized that their concerns and the push to overhaul the military aid program predated the current upheaval in Pakistan.
The senior military official insisted that there were no indications that Musharraf was improperly using the money in the crackdown. "I'm not really concerned about it being spent for beating the political opposition," the official said.
Regular army troops have not been involved in breaking up street demonstrations against Musharraf's emergency decree; that task has been carried out by Pakistani police and paramilitary troops. The intelligence services, however, have been involved in drawing up lists of candidates for arrest as "troublemakers," and in providing information on their whereabouts.
The push for greater oversight has been given new urgency by calls from congressional Democrats for more accountability. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the subcommittee responsible for foreign aid, said he planned a hearing to press the Bush administration to explain how money is being spent in Pakistan. In an interview, Menendez said State Department officials provided "unacceptable" answers.
"The administration hasn't been overly forthcoming, and I don't know why," he said. "If they're not forthcoming because they don't really have the type of accountability that we should be getting from the Pakistanis, then we need to deal with that."
On Friday, Menendez wrote to R. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of State for political affairs, asking for any detailed audits of the Coalition Support Funds program.
The Bush administration set up the program as a way to reimburse Pakistan for military action against Islamic radicals operating in areas bordering Afghanistan. Since then, it has become the single largest source of military aid to Pakistan, totaling about $5.3 billion since its inception in early 2002 -- or about $80 million a month. Money from the program accounts for about three-quarters of all U.S. military aid over the last six years.
