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U.S. pressures Pakistan on militants, backs Zardari
Tue May 5, 2009 3:40pm EDT
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By Arshad Mohammed
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday pressured Pakistan to take on Taliban militants whose influence is spreading in the nuclear-armed country but said it solidly supports Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
"Pakistan must demonstrate its commitment to rooting out al Qaeda and the violent extremists within its borders," Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said in prepared congressional testimony.
U.S. President Barack Obama meets the Afghan and Pakistani presidents in Washington on Wednesday for talks expected to focus on containing the Taliban's insurgency in Afghanistan as well as its growing influence in neighboring Pakistan.
U.S. officials have become increasingly worried about the strength of Pakistan's Taliban militants, who have advanced beyond a stronghold in the Swat valley, to Buner valley just 60 miles northwest of the capital, Islamabad.
Pakistani security forces launched an offensive to expel militants from Buner and another district on April 26. About 180 militants have been killed, according to the military, although there has been no independent confirmation.
Hundreds of people fled the Swat valley's main town on Tuesday after a Pakistani official warned of the possibility of fresh fighting between government forces and the militants.
The Pakistani government offensive follows criticism by American officials, lawmakers and analysts who accuse Zardari of having done too little to undercut the Taliban.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently accused Pakistan of abdicating to the Taliban and raised the specter of militants seizing its nuclear arsenal, although Obama later played down the latter fear.
'PAKISTAN'S PANTS ARE ON FIRE'?
Despite the criticism, Holbrooke sent an unambiguous signal of support for Zardari, the widow of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007.
"We have the highest strategic interests in supporting this government," Holbrooke said. "Our goal must be unambiguously to support and help stabilize a democratic Pakistan headed by its elected president, Asif Ali Zardari."
U.S. lawmakers voiced their deep worries about Pakistan during the hearing, sometimes in remarkably blunt terms.
"Pakistan's pants are on fire." said Rep. Gary Ackerman, a Democrat who launched a scathing criticism of Zardari.
"President Zardari has said the right things ... but in practice his government's response has been slow, weak and ineffective," Ackerman added. "The fire is real and they need to respond."
Holbrooke told the members of Congress that Pakistan was of vital strategic interest to the United States, both to help stabilize Afghanistan and to prevent either country from becoming a springboard for attacks on the United States. Continued...
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