Array of country list in PHP with Zend Framework

public static function countryList($local)
    {
        $locale = new Zend_Locale('en_US');
        $countries = ($locale->getTranslationList('Territory', $local, 2));
        asort($countries, SORT_LOCALE_STRING);
        
        $countries = array_combine($countries, $countries);
        
        return $countries;
    }