Washington ? The Bush administration, strongly opposed to European sales of sophisticated weapons to China, is giving the green light to expanded U.S. sales of jet fighters to two countries in China’s back yard.

The administration rewarded Pakistan on Friday with the promise of more than a dozen F-16 jet fighters. Mindful of the delicate military balance in South Asia, the administration also signaled that Pakistan’s longtime rival India could move ahead with its own weapons buys.

The sales to two countries that have fought three wars mark a shift in policy and could raise eyebrows among U.S. allies in Europe who are under White House pressure not to lift an arms embargo on China. The administration argues that European weapons could further escalate tensions between Taiwan and China and that the weapons might one day be turned on U.S. forces in the Pacific.

“It’s really apples and oranges we’re talking about,” State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Friday.

Conditions are improving in South Asia, while the same concerns about Chinese human rights practices that prompted the arms ban remain, Ereli said.

The United States sees no irony in its position, Ereli said.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Pakistan has become an important partner in hunting suspected terrorists and cracking down on anti-American extremists.

Ereli said the administration sent reports Friday to Congress describing proposals to sell armaments to both Pakistan and India. Congress must approve the sensitive technology export.

The decision allows Pakistan to finally move ahead on purchases of two dozen F-16s dating to the 1980s, before the United States blocked the sale because of Pakistan’s increasingly obvious drive to build nuclear weapons.

There is no limit on future sales to Pakistan, a State Department official said on condition of anonymity.