LAHORE, Dec 5: Pakistan wanted to rebuild ties with the United States despite the ongoing retaliation over Nato air strikes in Mohmand Agency last month, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Monday, stressing that he believed “it won’t take long” to achieve a new relationship with Washington.

“We really want to have good relations with the US based on mutual respect and clearly defined parameters,” he said in an interview with the Associated Press. “I think that is doable. I think that it won’t take long.”

According to observers, his remarks indicated that Pakistan was looking for a way to restore some normality to ties with Washington following the Nov 26 air strikes by the US-led troops in Afghanistan, but at the same time it wanted to try and reset the relationship in ways more beneficial to it.

Mr Gilani also said the country remained committed to working with Afghanistan to bring militant leaders into talks with the government and allow the US to begin withdrawing its troops as it was committed to doing.

“I think we have evolved some mechanisms, and we are ready to cooperate,” he said, referring to meetings with Afghanistan’s military and intelligence chiefs on a framework for talks. “We are committed (to reconciliation), even though we are not attending” the Bonn conference on Afghanistan, he said.

This may have offered some reassurance to international leaders who met in Germany on Monday to discuss the future of Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Gilani said he did not regret skipping the Bonn meeting, saying “since the soil of Afghanistan was used against Pakistan in the Nato raids, there was a tremendous protest in my country and people putting pressure that we not attend”.

Mr Gilani said new ties being negotiated with the US would ensure that the two countries “respect each other’s red lines” regarding sovereignty and rules of engagement along the border. While he gave few details, he made it clear he thought this was both desirable.

While no one in Washington underestimates the difficulties in dealing with Islamabad, most officials there also call for continued engagement as Pakistan holds a “major key to Afghan peace”.

In Mr Gilani’s office, along with photos of his children, there are two pictures of the prime minister with former president George Bush in Washington, along with a signed note from Mr Bush in 2008 pledging continued support for Mr Gilani’s efforts to bring stability to the country and thanks for “the fine-looking gun” he had brought him as a gift.

Washington and Islamabad have given differing accounts of what led to the air strikes on the Pakistan army posts last month, in what was at least the third such incident along the porous and poorly-defined border since 2008.—AP

Anwar Iqbal adds from Washington: The State Department refrained from endorsing Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s call for resetting the bilateral relationship.

However, it acknowledged that Islamabad had a role as an “essential partner” in the fight against terrorism.

“Well, I think we also, of course, welcome Prime Minister Gilani’s positive statements on the US-Pakistani relationship,” said a State Department spokesman when asked to comment on Mr Gilani’s remarks, adding that the United States wanted to get over the bitterness caused by the killing of Pakistani soldiers.

“From the very moments after this tragedy, we’ve been clear that this is a relationship that’s vital to US national security interests. It’s vital to Pakistan’s national security interests. It’s vital to the region’s interests that we work together productively and that we’re committed to addressing the issues between us and to moving forward.”

When a journalist asked him if he agreed with the prime minister that the relationship needed a reset, Mr Toner said: “I accept the premise that — there’s most recently, of course, the terrible tragedy of the Pakistani soldiers who were killed in the cross-border incident — that there have been significant challenges in this relationship, and that we’re committed to working through them.”

“Are you staying away from using the word reset because it hasn’t worked out so well with the Russians?” asked a reporter. “No,” said Mr Toner.

Asked if the US was already having bilateral discussions on how Pakistan can help Afghanistan in the period leading up to a Nato summit in Chicago next year, Mr Toner said: “Those are always discussions that we’re having. Obviously, we face a shared threat, both Pakistan and Afghanistan and the United States, from extremists operating in that region. And so, of course, we’re always in discussion about how we can improve coordination.”

When another reporter asked if the US was now going to work with the civilian or the military establishment in Pakistan, Mr Toner said: “The US government is always going to have lines of communication to both the Pakistani military and the Pakistani civilian leadership.”

“Afghan President Karzai has said just before the Bonn conference that Pakistan is trying to disrupt the peace negotiations in Afghanistan. Do you share the same concern?” asked a reporter. “We do support an Afghan-led effort” for reconciliation, he replied. “We’ve also said that, obviously, Pakistan can play a role in that effort.”

The US, he said, was also playing a key role in improving relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, he added.

“That’s certainly one of the goals of this investigation that we’re conducting into the incident of a couple weeks ago. We want to ensure that such a terrible tragedy doesn’t occur in the future. But more broadly, the goal of conferences (like Bonn) is to, obviously, solidify and strengthen that kind of regional cooperation, because certainly Pakistan has a very clear role, but all of Afghanistan’s neighbours have an important role to play in its future development.”

Asked what were President Obama and Secretary Clinton’s goals in making three calls to Pakistan before the Bonn conference, the State Department official said that those calls were “in part a recognition that this was a significant national tragedy for Pakistan and to, again, just convey one more time our sympathies, our condolences, and to express very clearly that the United States both respects Pakistan’s sovereignty, but it’s also very committed to making this relationship work.”

“Was not the purpose of both phone calls to get the Pakistanis to reconsider their boycott of Bonn?” asked a reporter. “I’m certainly sure that they did discuss Bonn conference” but”: I’m not aware that she asked them specifically to reconsider their position.”

Was she notified that the Pakistanis weren’t going to go to Bonn, asked another reporter. “I’m not going to get into the substance of that conference beyond the fact that the Germans, as the host government, would have been notified formally by Pakistan whether they were attending or not,” said Mr Toner.