The United States is planning to sell Tunisia a dozen advanced attack helicopters as Washington seeks to help the North African state stamp out a mounting threat from militants.

The United States is planning to sell Tunisia a dozen advanced attack helicopters as Washington seeks to help the North African state stamp out a mounting threat from militants.

"We asked the United States to give us about 12 Black Hawks," Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki said during a speech on Tuesday at the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.

"We badly need them now," he said.

The Obama administration is planning to sell Tunisia 12 UH-60M Black Hawks for a total estimated cost of $700 million, according to a notice posted late last month by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, a U.S government agency that manages arms sales.

The aircraft would be equipped with Hellfire missiles, machine guns and other sophisticated military technology, according to the agency. The sale requires consent of Congress.

The Black Hawk is built by Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corp.

Tunisia is facing a militant threat of its own, mostly due to attacks mounted by the al-Qaeda offshoot Ansar al-Sharia and to a flow of fighters and weapons unleashed by other conflicts in the region.

Since April, thousands of troops have been deployed to Tunisia's mountainous Chaambi region on the border with Algeria, where fighters fleeing a French military intervention in Mali last year have taken refuge. At least 15 soldiers have been killed in attacks on military checkpoints in the area.