US official: Decision on Taiwan F-16 sale by Oct.

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The United States will decide by Oct. 1 on Taiwan's long-mooted bid to buy F-16 fighter jets, a senior American official said Friday, and a Washington-based advocate of the deal suggested it would likely be rejected.

The official said the deadline for deciding on the bid, which involves 66 relatively advanced F-16 C/Ds, followed discussions between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, where the planes are assembled.

In exchange for agreeing to the deadline, the official said — and for Clinton arranging for the release of a long-delayed Pentagon report on Taiwan's air force capabilities — Cornyn will remove the …