AFP - Leading Senator John Kerry and a top US general held talks with Pakistani officials on Monday as Washington tried to counter protests over a controversial 7.5-billion-dollar aid package.

Kerry arrived in Pakistan after US President Barack Obama last week signed the package tripling non-military aid to the nuclear-armed Muslim nation to boost its campaign against a virulent Islamist insurgency.

Although the government here defends the package, Pakistan's powerful military has expressed grave reservations about conditions that hinge some aid on efforts to battle Islamist extremism.

The senator, a key author of the five-year package aiming to build schools, roads and democratic institutions, began his talks with Pakistan's army chief of staff Ashfaq Kayani, an embassy official said.

He also met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, ahead of scheduled talks with President Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan's opposition leader, Nawaz Sharif.

Kerry coincides with a visit from General David Petraeus, commander of the US Central Command that oversees the war in neighbouring Afghanistan, who held talks with Gilani.

The bill prevents the funding from being used for nuclear proliferation, to support militants or to attack neighbouring countries -- namely India -- and calls for a cut-off in aid if Pakistan fails to crack down on extremists.

After Pakistan's foreign minister rushed to Washington to seek clarifications, US lawmakers issued a statement saying the plan did not impose conditions, infringe on Pakistani sovereignty or dictate national policy.

The measure offers 1.5 billion dollars a year for five years to improve Pakistani schools, to fund groups that defend the rights of women and children, and to train and modernise the police.

But some conditions sparked uproar among military commanders and Pakistan's popular opposition parties. Kayani has said the package posed "serious concern" on national security, stressing that "Pakistan is a sovereign state."

Kerry, who sought to reassure Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi last week, said the legislation marks "a true sign of friendship with the people of Pakistan."

Speaking as he met Petraeus, Gilani said it was important that Pakistan and the United States work together "to bridge the trust deficit".

Gilani added that international aid would be needed for relief efforts and reconstruction in the tribal region of South Waziristan, where the Pakistan army is conducting a major anti-Taliban offensive following US pressure.

Petraeus said the United States "acknowledges the sacrifices of Pakistan in the war on terror".

Commentators say the backlash to the package was in part motivated by power play between the army and the civilian government and a desire by Zardari's political opponents to turn up the heat on the embattled leader.

"Pakistan's military opposed this bill because it has challenged its supremacy, while the opposition parties are opposing it just for short-term gains and if they succeed it will be harmful for Pakistan in the long term," leading independent economist Haris Gazdar told AFP.

"We can't live without the support of the United States, so even if Nawaz Sharif assumes power, he will also have to go for it."

Analyst and author Ahmed Rashid said Zardari had been caught off-guard by the opposition to the aid package under which Pakistan's government will receive more than the one billion dollars that the military gets.

"It would be the first time in the history of the relationship between the US and Pakistan that Washington would be giving so much money to a civilian government," he wrote on the BBC website.

Kerry's visit to Pakistan comes after he held talks in Afghanistan, including with President Hamid Karzai over a protracted dispute over August's fraud-tainted elections.