Pakistan 'snubs US plea' for more military action

(AFP)

WASHINGTON - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has rebuffed an appeal from US President Barack Obama for a speedy expansion of military action in tribal areas, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Pakistani soldiers patrol a town in South Waziristan

Citing US and Pakistani officials, it said Zardari had written to Obama to pledge that his military would fight insurgents in Pakistan's lawless border region with Afghanistan, but on its own schedule.

Zardari also "called on the United States to speed up military assistance to Pakistani forces and to intervene more forcefully with India, its traditional adversary," the Post reported.

Zardari's three-page letter to Obama, in response to a letter Obama sent last month, did not mention India directly, but "made repeated reference to Pakistan's core interests, unresolved historical conflicts and conventional imbalances," the newspaper reported.

Pakistan has launched several major military operations this year, mainly targeting the Pakistani Taliban in south Waziristan and the Swat Valley, but the Obama administration wants to see action taken against the so-called Haqqani network.

That group, based in north Waziristan, is active across the border in Afghanistan where US troops are among its targets.

Some US officials and regional analysts suspect the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence directorate maintains ties with the group's leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, considering him a useful asset in Afghanistan.

But Pakistani officials say they are committed to going after Haqqani and his group eventually.

"We're committed to this war, but we'll fight it on our terms," a Pakistani official was quoted as telling the Post on condition of anonymity.

That message was reinforced at a meeting Monday between the US head of Central Command David Petraeus and Pakistan's military chief General Ashfaq Kiyani, who warned US officials not to expect "a major operation" in north Waziristan, the Post said.