WASHINGTON, Jan 28: President Asif Ali Zardari urged the United States on Wednesday to boost both military and non-military aid to his country to help it fight extremists.

In an opinion piece published in The Washington Post, the president said Pakistan needed economic and political stability to defeat extremists and appealed to Washington to give it necessary tools, including modern military equipment.

“Give us the tools, and we will get the job done,” Mr Zardari wrote, while congratulating Barack Obama on being the first African-American president of the United States.

He said: “Mr Obama understands that for Pakistan to defeat the extremists it must be stable … for democracy to succeed, Pakistan must be economically viable.”

The president argued that “assistance to Pakistan is not charity; rather, the creation of a politically stable and economically viable Pakistan is in the long-term, strategic interest of the United States”.

Mr Zardari said the Obama administration should immediately encourage Congress to pass the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act.

The multi-year, $1.5 billion annual commitment to social progress would signal to the people of Pakistan that this is no longer a relationship of political convenience but, rather, of shared values and goals, he said.

“Strengthening our democracy and helping us to improve education, housing and health care is the greatest tool we could wield against extremism. Indeed, such policy is the fanatics’ worst fear,” Mr Zardari said.

He said Pakistan had made “remarkable progress” in the past several months in its battle against the Taliban and Al Qaeda but needed the United States to supply it with the newest military technology and to upgrade its military equipment.

The president welcomed Mr Obama’s appointment of veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke as a special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, but warned that Pakistan’s commitment to battling extremists should not be questioned.

“With all due respect, we need no lectures on our commitment. This is our war. It is our children and wives who are dying,” Mr Zardari said.

He said he hoped Mr Holbrooke would work to resolve differences between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir dispute, saying it “must be addressed in some meaningful way to bring stability to this region”.