13:30/25:06:2009

KABUL (PAN): US President Barack Obama has signed into law an inflated $106 billion bill to ramp up counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan and scale down the war in Iraq during the current financial year.

The bill inked on Wednesday offers Pakistan -- a key US ally in the anti-terror campaign -- a huge amount of $ 1.4 billion in economic and security aid. Islamabad claims suffering a loss of $35 billion due to the insurgency in its tribal belt.

However, the $80 million the president had sought for shutting the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba is not included in the legislation that earmarks $79.9 billion to continue funding the wars through Sept. 30.

Also on Wednesday, the US envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan told a House committee Reconstruction Opportunities Zones (ROZs) would be created in places where large numbers of Pakistanis had taken refuge from recent fighting.

Employment opportunities in the lawless tribal region served US security interests, insisted Richard Holbrooke, who observed: "Americans have died because people out of work in the Fata joined the Taliban and jobs could reduce that."