Pakistan has been waiting for years to buy the high-tech fighters planes, the sale of which were blocked for years after Washington slapped sanctions on Islamabad over its nuclear program. But Washington reversed its position and approved the sale in March as a reward for Pakistan’s help in the US fight against terror.

“I am going to postpone that ... we want to bring maximum relief and reconstruction efforts,” President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said after touring a US army field hospital in the Pakistani Kashmir hub of Muzaffarabad.

In July, the Pakistani air force confirmed it was about to buy an initial two F-16s from the United States and Musharraf said as recently as Monday that the quake would not affect his country’s huge military spending in any way.

India strongly opposes the deal.