US envoys' visit to Pakistan draws fire

Islamabad: Pakistan expressed growing outrage on Thursday over the ill-timed visit by two senior US envoys who landed even before foes of US-backed President Pervez Musharraf could name a new cabinet.

Many decried the visit as American "meddling."

The US envoys, Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte and Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, began meetings in Islamabad just as newly elected Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was taking his oath of office on Tuesday.

Washington has been scrambling to build bridges with Pakistan's new leaders, who routed Musharraf loyalists in parliamentary elections last month partly because of popular anger over the president's alliance with the US in the war on terror.

The timing of their arrival drew criticism.

Thursday's English-language daily Dawn said the envoys came to Pakistan "in indecent haste." The visit was "not in keeping with diplomatic propriety," its editorial said.

The News, meanwhile, urged US officials to "restrain themselves in further meddling in Pakistan's affairs."

The new government has pledged to slash Musharraf's powers and review his American-backed counterterrorism policies.

Already, partners in the new government have said they would negotiate with some militant groups—an approach that has drawn criticism from Washington, which has provided about $10 billion in aid to Pakistan since 2001.

Negroponte and Boucher travelled Wednesday to the lawless northwest frontier where the air strikes have hit, visiting US-funded border guards and as well as a mountaintop paramilitary base at the Khyber Pass, the US Embassy said.

On Thursday, they travelled to the southern city of Karachi to meet with provincial government officials and the American business community there, the embassy said.

Local TV channels said the envoys met with commanders of the Frontier Corps, the paramilitary force that Washington plans to train and equip to fight militants, and also with tribal leaders.

"We have to fight terrorism," Gilani later told the American diplomats at his home in Islamabad. "We will confront it with complete determination."

But "the world community has to do more in order to develop a collective approach" to the problem, Gilani said, stressing the need for economic development to help tackle extremism.

He repeatedly addressed Negroponte as "Your Excellency."

Rasul Bakhsh Rais, who teaches political science at the University of Management Sciences in Lahore, said Negroponte and Boucher's visit was "not at the appropriate time."

The new Cabinet line up is not expected to be announced before this weekend.

"The locus of authority has changed in Pakistan and they (the Americans) have to look toward new political forces," Rais said.

American military actions inside Pakistan have also drawn anger and charges of interference.

American newspaper reported that a recent increase in US air strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas was because of US worries that the new government would scale back military operations in the area.

Such strikes have killed at least 25 people this month, sparking anger over civilian casualties in the region, where Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaida operatives could be hiding.