An American defense official said Thursday in Islamabad that the United States is considering Pakistan's request for F-16 aircraft.

"It is an important issue and will be dealt with at the right time," Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith told a news conference here.

Islamabad inked a deal with Washington to purchase some two dozen fighter planes in the 1980s, but the contract was canceled in the 1990s, when a sanction was imposed on Pakistan for conducting a series of nuclear tests.

"There is a lot of hope in the air" to get F-16 planes, Pakistan's defense secretary Hamid Nawaz said at the joint press conference with Feith.

Feith said Pakistan and the United States have common interestsin the international war against terrorism.

Earlier in the day, Feith took part in a meeting of the Pakistan-US Defense Consultative Group, a forum set up in 1984 to promote military cooperation between the two countries.