ISLAMABAD: US Sen. John Kerry said Wednesday he is hopeful that the bitter dispute over an American embassy worker detained in Pakistan will be resolved ''in the next few days.''

Kerry, who rushed to Pakistan to try to prevent a diplomatic meltdown over the continued detention of American Raymond Davis, sounded upbeat at the end of two days of meetings with senior Pakistani government officials and opposition powerbrokers.

The US says Davis shot two Pakistanis in self-defense as they tried to rob him Jan. 27, and that his detention is illegal under international agreements covering diplomats.

Pakistani leaders, fearful of stoking more outrage in a public already rife with anti-US sentiment, have said the matter is up to the courts to decide.

Davis' next court hearing is set for Thursday.

''I look forward in the next few days, hopefully, to finding the ways that we all agreed on that we can find in order to resolve this issue,'' Kerry told reporters before boarding a plane in the Pakistani capital.

The dispute has become a bitter point of contention between the United States and Pakistan, a key ally in the war in Afghanistan. The US senator said his meetings were encouraging, and stressed that all involved said they wanted and expected to end the standoff amicably.

''Now everybody has to work in goodwill to make the words mean something,'' Kerry said. ''They will only mean something with actions that result in an appropriate and judicious outcome being accomplished. I think that will be done.''

But Kerry's upbeat attitude contrasted with a sense of internal divisions within Pakistan's government over how to handle the case. – AP