Bush to warn Pakistan on counter terrorism: Report

Washington, Feb 26: President George W Bush has decided tosend an unusually tough message to Pakistan President Pervez Musharrafwarning that the new Democratic-led Congress could cut aid to hiscountry unless it does more to crack down on al Qaeda operatives, TheNew York Times reported.

The decision came after the White House concluded that PresidentMusharraf, a key ally in Washington's ''War on Terror,'' was not livingup to commitment he made to Mr Bush in September to combat militantgroups, the newspaper yesterday said, citing senior administrationofficials.

Pakistan says it is doing all it can to stop militantsinfiltrating Afghanistan, but the US military says cross-border attacksaround the Afghan frontier increased sharply last year.

US intelligence officials have concluded that the terroristinfrastructure was being rebuilt, and that while Pakistan has attackedsome camps, its overall effort has flagged, The New York Times reported.

''He's made a number of assurances over the past few months, butthe bottom line is that what they are doing now is not working,'' onesenior administration official told the newspaper. ''The message we'resending to him now is that the only thing that matters is results.''''We think the Pakistani aid is at risk in Congress,'' said theofficial, who did not want to be identified.

The House of Representatives recently adopted a bill requiringBush to certify Pakistan is making ''all possible efforts'' to preventthe Taliban from operating in areas under its sovereign control as acondition of continued US military aid. The Senate was considering aresponse to pressure Islamabad to do more combat militant groups.

Pakistan receives about 850 million dollar annually in USeconomic, military and counternarcotics aid and about 350 milliondollar of that could be affected by the House bill, congressionalexperts say.

Under Musharraf, Pakistan became a key ally after the September 11attacks by withdrawing its support for the Taliban government, sharingintelligence with US officials and rounding up suspected Islamicmilitants.

Reuters>