WASHINGTON: The United States is holding back $800 million in military aid to Pakistan, a senior Obama administration confirmed on Sunday, as the two countries continued to spar over the issue of terrorism.

White House chief of staff William Daley disclosed on Sunday talk shows that while Pakistan has "been an important ally in the fight on terrorism...now they've taken some steps that have given us reason to pause on some of the aid which we're giving to the military, and we're trying to work through that."

Shorn off the polite verbiage, the Obama administration is following up on the secretary of state Hillary Clinton's warning that Pakistan cannot expect a free lunch in terms of military aid if it does not meet US objectives in the fight against terrorism.

The step to cut $800 million, which constitutes a third of the more than $2 billion assistance earmarked for Pakistan in 2011, is intended to bring Islamabad into line. More cuts are expected if Pakistan remains defiant. "It's a complicated relationship in a very difficult, complicated part of the world. Obviously, there's still lot of pain that the political system in Pakistan is feeling by virtue of the raid that we did to get Osama Bin Laden, something that the president felt strongly about and we have no regrets over," an unapologetic Daley said, reflecting Obama's hardline stance on Pakistan.

"Until we get through these difficulties, we will hold back some of the money that the American taxpayers have committed to give them," he added. The administration's decision to curtail aid also gels with the strong sentiment in Congress that Pakistan has been a duplicitous and ungrateful ally. In the past week, administration officials and military commanders have taken the gloves off in castigating Pakistan for fomenting terrorism and for its record of nuclear proliferation.

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