Washington, Jun 21 (IANS/DPA): The US government plans to postpone the delivery of some military equipment to other countries to prioritise strengthening Ukraine's air defences.

White House National Security Spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday that given Kiev's urgent needs, the US government had made the "difficult but necessary" decision to postpone certain planned arms sales to other countries, in particular missiles for the Patriot and NASAMS air defence systems.

These should go instead to Ukraine, whose armed forces urgently need additional air defence capacities, he added.

The countries concerned had been informed, Kirby said, though he did not say which countries were involved.

All are to receive what they had ordered, just a little later than originally planned, he added.

This was first mentioned by US President Joe Biden during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a few days ago on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy.