Pak PM leaves for US, focus on terror

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking in Australia on Friday, set the tone for the visit by stressing Pakistan had to do more to curb the flow of militants fuelling the Afghan insurgency.

“Extremism and terrorism are our own problems. This is our own fight. This is our own cause,” he told reporters at a military airbase in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, before his departure.

“My priority number one is to maintain law and order in the country … and that’s why it is in our own interest that extremism and terrorism is contained.”

The US has long been frustrated at what it views as inadequate efforts by its major ally in the war on terror to do enough to combat militants along the border with Afghanistan.

Washington has broadly supported Gilani’s policy of using tribal elders to influence militants to give up violence but has expressed worries that militants would use the breathing space provided by talks to step up attacks on Western forces in Afghanistan.

In recent weeks, US officials have shown impatience over the rising number of attacks in Afghanistan, raising fears in Pakistan that US forces might take action against militant bases on Pakistani soil. During his four-day visit, Gilani would also meet US presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.