High-tech equipment delivered to Pakistan

The U.S. yesterday gave Pakistan high-tech communications equipment worth millions of dollars to bolster the capability of its key ally in the anti-terrorism war to round up Al Qaida fugitives from Afghanistan. It also praised Pakistan for its cooperation in the war against terror.

"We are satisfied with the great cooperation and I reiterated that this is in the interest of Pakistan as well," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca told reporters after handing over the equipment worth $4.5 million at a ceremony here even as she announced that during the past one year Pakistan handed over 400 "terrorists" to the U.S. authorities.

The assistance was part of a $73 million package for Pakistan to boost surveillance along the long porous border with Afghanistan.

Rocca met President General Pervez Musharraf yesterday after holding talks the previous day with Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmud Kasuri, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat and senior officials.

Details of her meeting with Musharraf, which was also attended by Kasuri and U.S. Ambassador Nancy Powell, were not disclosed.

Since the launch of the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan in October last year, Pakistan has arrested more than 420 fleeing Al Qaida and Taliban cadres.

Rocca is understood to have discussed the progress of ongoing operations by Pakistani forces in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan to hunt down Al Qaida and Taliban fugitives with U.S. intelligence help.

Interior Minister Hayat underlined Pakistan's "unwavering" commitment to war on terrorism and said the country would never allow anyone to use its soil for any kind of terrorist activity.

Islamabad directly controls the tribal areas, though a religious alliance opposed to U.S. military presence in the region rules one border province and shares power in the other following its impressive gains in October elections.

Official sources said recent U.S. media reports alleging Pakistan's cooperation with North Korea in its nuclear programme also came up during the talks.

Pakistan has dismissed as baseless and motivated a report in the New York Times last month that Islamabad provided nuclear help for missile parts from Pyongyang. When asked about the controversy Rocca said Musharraf had already given assurances to Secretary of State Colin Powell in this connection.

She said Powell had discussed the matter with Musharraf and he offered "400 per cent" guarantee that "nothing is happening".

Powell said recently he had made clear to Musharraf that any sort of contact between Pakistan and North Korea would be "improper, inappropriate and would have consequences".

Rocca, who arrived here on Monday on her visit to Islamabad after the formation of a civilian government in the country, was due to meet Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali late yesterday.