Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, has rebuffed an effort by the US air force to cut its order of Joint Strike Fighters by a third - a proposal senior air force officials had hoped would save its prized F/A-22 programme.

Air force top brass had sought a cut of about 500 JSFs in their 2006 budget proposal to Mr Rumsfeld - from 1,700 to 1,200 - to find money to fund 277 F/A-22 Raptors, a $72bn (€53bn) programme that recently moved into initial production.