Islamabad, Jul 18 (IANS): The US is helping Pakistan to tackle the energy crisis being faced by the country, a top US official has said.

The coordinator for non-military US assistance to Pakistan, Robin Raphel told the Daily Times in Lahore that the US was contributing an initial amount to start work on a dam.

Pakistan's power shortfall has now reached 5,000 MW. The country is generating 13,240 MW against a peak demand of 18,065 MW.

Washington was spending millions of dollars to aid Pakistan's capacity building through renovation and repair of dams that would add over 500MW to the national grid, she said.

"There is no short-term solution to end the gap between electricity consumption and generation," the US official was quoted as saying.

"In the first phase of the series of US-funded benefits, three thermal power plants are being renovated to increase their efficiency. This would take 18 to 24 months and would be would be completed by the mid or end of year 2012."

She said the US was also assisting Pakistan to build two dams - Gomal Zam Dam and Satpara Dam - in South Waziristan and Gilgit-Baltistan.