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Pakistan highlights 'gap' with US over drone attacks
Islamabad (AFP) April 7, 2009 Pakistan's foreign minister said Tuesday US drone attacks are working to the advantage of the extremists, highlighting differences with Washington after talks with top US officials. Shah Mehmood Qureshi said he flagged up "red lines" in Pakistan's cooperation with the United States in fighting Islamist militants when he met US military commander Admiral Mike Mullen and envoy Richard Holbrooke. "We did talk about drones and let me be very frank. There's a gap. There's a gap between us and them, and I want to bridge that gap," Qureshi told a news conference after the talks. Mullen and Holbrooke arrived here late Monday on the first top-level US visit to Pakistan since President Barack Obama put the country at the heart of the fight against Al-Qaeda Pakistan is deeply opposed to the drone attacks, around 37 of which have killed over 360 people since August 2008, saying they violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment in the nuclear-armed nation. "There is a difference of view," Qureshi told reporters. "My view is that they are working to the advantage of the extremists. We agree to disagree on this. We will take it up when we meet again in Washington," Qureshi added. The foreign minister said Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States would hold trilateral military and civilian talks in the US capital on May 6-7 on the sweeping new US strategy to counter the Afghan war. "The bottom line is the question of trust. We are partners and we want to be partners," he said. "We can only work together if we respect each other and we trust each other. There is no other way. Nothing else will work." Pakistan's powerful intelligence services -- which have a history of supporting Islamist militants to fight in Indian-controlled Kashmir and in Afghanistan -- are under tough US pressure to sever ties with extremists. Tuesday's talks came as the New York Times reported that the United States intended to step up drone attacks on militants in Pakistan's tribal areas, which border Afghanistan, and might extend them deeper inside Pakistan. The paper said "officials" proposed broadening the missile strikes to Pakistan's southwest province of Baluchistan, which comes under federal government control, unless Pakistan reduces incursions by militants. Pakistan has paid dearly for its alliance with the US in its "war on terror." Militant attacks have killed more than 1,700 people since July 2007. Pakistan angrily rejects criticism that it does not do more to quash Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants holed up on the Afghan border, pointing to the deaths of more than 1,500 troops killed at the hands of Islamist extremists since 2002. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Russia buys unmanned drones from Israel: report
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