Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf today said the world had not responded to the recent earthquake as generously as to last year's Asian tsunami because Western tourists weren't caught up in it.
Mr Musharraf, visiting quake-hit regions on the Eid al-Fitr holiday almost a month after the quake, said he was postponing the purchase of F-16 warplanes from the United States to provide more relief to quake victims
"We want to bring maximum relief and reconstruction effort," he said, while stressing that maintaining national security was also important.
The United States said last year it was willing to sell Pakistan F-16 fighters, and Islamabad has been expected to buy about 80 of them.
Earthquake survivors had little to celebrate on the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of the holy month of Ramadan nearly four weeks after more than 73,000 people were killed in the country's worst disaster.
Pakistani Kashmir and adjoining North West Frontier Province bore the brunt of the 7.6 magnitude quake, which also seriously injured more than 69,000.
It was the strongest quake to hit South Asia in 100 years and left more than three million people in need of emergency shelter with a bitter Himalayan winter approaching.