PM reiterates stand in meeting with Obama

Washington: After meeting with Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani declared he was opposed to any unilateral US military attacks should terrorist leaders be found hiding in Pakistan, which Obama has suggested he would approve of as president.

"We can do it ourselves," Gilani said on Tuesday night after a speech. He added, however, that Islamabad wanted better cooperation with the United States to share intelligence about foreign militants who move freely across the rugged border with Afghanistan. "We are not able to control them, and you are not able to control them," he said.

Missile strikes

After a meeting on Monday at the White House, President George W. Bush told Gilani that the United States respects Pakistan's sovereignty. But attacks in recent months against militant leaders in Pakistan's tribal belt, including a missile strike just hours before Bush met with Gilani, are widely believed to have been conducted by the United States. The strikes, along with US pressure to take action against militant strongholds, have strained ties between Washington and the Islamabad.

Gilani, who said he also talked this week with Republican presidential candidate John McCain, said Pakistan is "no one's surrogate" in the fight against extremists. "We are fighting to save the soul of our homeland," he said.

Obama said at a fundraising luncheon on Tuesday that he told Gilani that "the only way we're going to be successful in the long term in defeating extremists... is if we are giving people opportunities. If people have a chance for a better life, then they are not as likely to turn to the ideologies of violence and despair."

Obama angered Pakistanis last year when he said that, as president, he would authorise unilateral military action if Al Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden were found to be in Pakistan.

Making the point again this month, Obama said, "If Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like Bin Laden if we have them in our sights."

The US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday sent to the full Senate a Bill that would triple the amount of economic aid going to Pakistan.

The Bill specifically would authorise $7.5 billion (Dh27.5 billion) to be spent in the next five years for development projects. It would withhold military aid unless the US State Department certified that "concerted efforts" were being made to engage Al Qaida and Taliban forces.

Gilani, in his comments on Tuesday night, said Pakistan was "heartened" by the legislation.