WASHINGTON, Oct 8: Pakistan overshadowed both Iraq and Afghanistan as an area of concern in the second US presidential debate, requiring both Barack Obama and John McCain to spend a lot of time explaining how they would deal with this country when one of them is elected president on Nov 4.

Senator Obama reiterated his controversial vow to send US troops into Pakistan to catch Osama bin Laden and other key Al Qaeda leaders if Islamabad fails to do the job.

“And if we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out, then I think that we have to act and we will take them out,” he declared.

“We will kill Bin Laden; we will crush Al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority.”

Senator McCain did not rule out the possibility of using force, if necessary, to uproot Al Qaeda safe havens in the tribal areas but promised to do so with Pakistan’s coordination.“And by working and coordinating our efforts together, not threatening to attack them, but working with them, and where necessary use force, but talk softly, but carry a big stick,” he said.

The two statements made it clear that if Mr Obama is elected, the new Democratic government in Washington will turn up the head on Pakistan, asking it to catch Al Qaeda leaders or let US forces do the job.

If Mr McCain is elected, the new Republican White House will continue the Bush administration’s policy of working with Pakistan to counter the militants and use force when necessary.

Both candidates were responding to the question: “Should the United States respect Pakistani sovereignty and not pursue Al Qaeda terrorists who maintain bases there, or should we ignore their borders and pursue our enemies like we did in Cambodia during the Vietnam War?”

“We have a difficult situation in Pakistan,” said Mr Obama. “I believe that part of the reason we have a difficult situation is because we made a bad judgment going into Iraq in the first place when we hadn’t finished the job of hunting down Bin Laden and crushing Al Qaeda.”

He explained that diverting of US resources to Iraq allowed Bin Laden to escape and set up base camps in Fata and use them for raiding US troops in Afghanistan.

“They’re stronger now than at any time since 2001. And that’s why I think it’s so important for us to reverse course, because that’s the central front on terrorism.”

Senator Obama insisted on withdrawing US troops from Iraq as soon as possible and redeploying them in Afghanistan because “the war against terror began in that region and that’s where it will end.”

He also underscored the need to put more pressure on the Afghan government to eliminate