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US backs Pakistani president as crunch talks loom

Associated Press - May 6, 2009

The United States vowed unambiguous backing on Tuesday for Pakistan's embattled President Asif Ali Zardari despite mounting disquiet in Congress ahead of White House talks also involving Afghanistan.

Wednesday's summit gathering of US President Barack Obama, Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai was "historically important," US special envoy Richard Holbrooke told restive MPs.

With the Taliban on the rise in both nations and Al-Qaeda an ever-present threat, Obama's special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan said: "Our most vital national security interests are at stake."

Freely crossing the porous border from their strongholds in southern Afghanistan, the Taliban have taken their fight against Zardari's eight-month-old civilian government deep into Pakistani territory.

With US fears for Pakistan's stability growing, officials said Obama was likely to press Zardari about the safety of his nation's nuclear arsenal.

"We have received many assurances from the military that this is something they have under control, but this is very much an ongoing topic," the US national security adviser, retired general James Jones, told the BBC. "The world would like to know that on this question, that there's absolute security and transparency."

But Holbrooke rejected US media reporting that the Obama administration is reaching out behind Zardari's back to political rival Nawaz Sharif, and said any attempt by Pakistan's military to retake power would be "terrible."

"Pakistan's of such immense importance to the United States, strategically and politically, that our goal must be to support unambiguously and help stabilise a democratic Pakistan headed by its elected president, Asif Ali Zardari," the veteran diplomat told the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

"We have the highest strategic interest in supporting this government," he said, noting that Zardari had ordered a military offensive in the Swat region as a controversial peace deal with the Taliban breaks down.

Last week, Obama said he was "gravely concerned" and emphasized Washington's interest in preventing the emergence of "a nuclear-armed militant state."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton late last month accused the Zardari government of "basically abdicating to the Taliban," and is predicting "very intense sessions" at the White House.

Obama has placed Pakistan at the centre of the fight against the Taliban's Al-Qaeda allies as he dispatches 4,000 more troops to Afghanistan, in addition to an extra 17,000 already committed for deployment there.

His new strategy entails a major new aid offensive to shore up civilian institutions in beleaguered Pakistan, especially in education, to offer an alternative to the militant ideology taught in Islamic madrassa schools.

However, a top MP with Obama's Democratic Party said Pakistan had to do more to persuade US MPs that it is serious about fighting extremism, amid complaints that its military remains fixated with India.

"I think there's a continuing concern as to whether or not... we can be successful in these two countries," Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told reporters. "We need to be very concerned about the dollars that we're spending and the effectiveness of those dollars," he said.

His comments came a day after Dave Obey, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, attached a set of benchmarks for measuring the effectiveness of US money spent on Obama's new strategy for the region.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry and top Republican senator Richard Lugar Monday introduced legislation calling for tripling US civilian aid to Pakistan to 1.5 billion dollars a year for the next five years.

But in a warning shot to both the Obama administration and Zardari's beleaguered government, the Kerry-Lugar legislation also calls for benchmarks to gauge the impact of US assistance.

Asked whether there was still time to help Zardari, Kerry replied: "While governments might change at some point in time – who knows? – I don't believe the country itself is about to fall apart."

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