US steps up effort to engage new Govt

The American administration on Tuesday stepped up efforts to engage Pakistan’s new Government even as PML-N leader Nawaz Shairf said the country’s support to the US-led war on terror would be reviewed. US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, who arrived here last night, held talks with President Pervez Musharraf and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, whose parties are the key players in the new coalition.

Sharif told reporters after his talks with the US officials that the new Government would review Pakistan’s role in the war on terror, saying “we don’t want our country to become a killing field” while working for peace elsewhere.

Sharif also told the US officials that Musharraf was an unconstitutional and illegal President who did not have the people’s support.

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“The basic issue is that just as the US wants to be safe from terrorism, we don’t want to see bombs and missiles falling on our villages, we want our people to be safe and we don’t want blood to flow,” he said.

There have been several instances of missile strikes on Pakistan’s northwestern tribal areas that were reportedly carried out by US-led forces in Afghanistan. Pakistan lodged a strong protest about one such recent attack that killed women and children.