ISLAMABAD, Feb 10: US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Ambassador Richard Holbrooke urged the Pakistani leadership on Tuesday to eliminate safe havens of terrorists in tribal areas and said the Obama administration would fully support efforts for achieving the objective.

The US envoy met President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and ISI’s Director General Lt-Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha.

In the course of what was described as frank, candid and straightforward discussion, he told them that the Obama administration was ready to get the Kerry-Lugar Bill passed for increasing socio-economic assistance to Pakistan, implement the Reconstruction Opportunity Zones project in tribal areas and meet the military hardware needs of the country for counter-insurgency operations. In return. he said, the US wanted to see the tribal areas cleared of safe havens of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

The special representative said that the safe havens in Fata were as much a threat to Pakistan as they were to the US and Afghanistan.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said at a press conference: “There are some irreconcilable elements and nobody wants to deal with them, neither Pakistan, nor Afghanistan nor the US, but there is a reconcilable element and we should not overlook their importance and their significance.”

The rest of the discussion was more of ‘exploratory nature’ during which Mr Holbrooke tried to sound out the Pakistani leaders on various aspects of Pak-US cooperation in the war on terror.

The government decided to set up an inter-agency committee led by Foreign Minister Qureshi which would sit with Mr Holbrooke’s team to review the past policies and help re-craft the US policy on Pakistan and Afghanistan. The committee will travel to Washington next month for further discussions.

Mr Qureshi said: “We’ll work with Ambassador Holbrooke in reviewing their analysis on what had happened in the past so many years, what went wrong and how to approach the issue in a different manner.”

Although the composition of the committee is yet to be decided, Mr Qureshi made it clear that it would include relevant people.

But even before the committee has been formed, there are concerns that the new structure could affect the ongoing strategic dialogue between the two countries.

The foreign minister said he had told Mr Holbrooke that the strategic dialogue between the US and Pakistan was significant and should not be overlooked as both sides engaged in cooperation at the level of inter-agency committee.

Pakistan’s concerns regarding the planned US military surge in Afghanistan were also communicated to the ambassador.

“The military surge might have implications for Pakistan,” Mr Qureshi said, adding it needed to be accompanied by a civilian surge, entailing socio-economic development and greater political engagement with reconcilable elements.

The issue of drone attacks featured in the discussion with Pakistan reiterating its position that the strikes were counter-productive.Ambassador Holbrooke was asked to weigh advantages and disadvantages of the attacks.

The foreign minister said he had told the US envoy that there should be ‘red lines’ defining what was acceptable and what was not acceptable to Pakistan, and also what was acceptable and what was unacceptable to the US.

Making a mention of the Kashmir issue, the Pakistani side emphasised that a holistic strategy for dealing with the problem of extremism and militancy was not possible without resolution of regional problems.

“If Pakistan has to remain focussed on western borders then obviously a calm eastern front is in everybody’s advantage,” Mr Qureshi said.Interestingly neither the Mumbai attacks nor the much talked about A. Q. Khan issue came up during the discussion.

Consensus for peace

Talking to Mr Holbrooke, Prime Minister Gilani said the new US administration must base its relationship with Pakistan on trust, cohesion and understanding of each other’s strengths and constraints in their struggle against extremism and terrorism.

He said Pakistan would like to engage with the US to build a new global strategic consensus for peace, security and stability in the region. He underlined the importance of enhanced cooperation in defence and intelligence sharing.

APP adds: During his meeting with Ambassador Holbrooke, President Zardari emphasised that only a cohesive and integrated regional approach was the way forward to defeating extremism and terrorism.

He also called for expediting the Kerry-Lugar Bill and Reconstruction Opportunity Zones legislation and stressed the need for working out a joint strategy to counter terrorism.

Welcoming Mr Holbrooke’s appointment as a special representative, the president said that stability, peace and prosperity of Pakistan were important for peace and stability in the region.

He assured Mr Holbrooke of Pakistan’s engagement with the new administration on the policy review that it was undertaking for the region