The Pentagon turned down or delayed more than USD 81 million requested by Pakistan in February following criticism that Islamabad has squandered the US funding and allowed al Qaeda to rebuild a haven in its tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"In private, the US officials have acknowledged that they had little oversight of Pakistan's spending," the paper said.

The US officials have said that Pakistan used much of the military aid to pay for heavy equipment suited for a regional conflict with India than for counter-insurgency operations in the frontier territories.

Pakistan has received close to a billion dollars a year since 2001 through a programme called Coalition Support Funds.

The programme was set up for anti-terrorism operations along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

The newspaper quoting the report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said although the rejection represented a small portion of the nearly USD 6 billion Islamabad has received for anti-terrorism program since 2001, it marked a change in policy towards Pakistan, which has been getting American military aid without needing to show results.