Democrat Obama talks tough on Pakistan

WASHINGTON, Aug 1 (Reuters) Democratic presidential candidate Sen Barack Obama said today that the United States must be willing to strike al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan, adopting a tougher tone after a chief rival accused him of naivety in foreign policy.

Obama's stance comes amid a debate in Washington over what to do about a resurgent al Qaeda and Taliban in areas of Pakistan that President Pervez Musharraf has been unable to control, and concerns that new recruits are being trained there for a Sept. 11-style attack against the United States.

''If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will,'' Obama said.

The Democrat is trying to convince Americans he has the foreign policy heft to be president as a rival candidate, New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton, questioned his readiness to be commander in chief.

Clinton last week labeled Obama naive for saying he would be willing to meet the leaders of Iran, Cuba, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela without preconditions in his first year in office.

A new poll conducted by The Wall Street Journal and NBC News said Clinton has widened her lead over Obama in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

It said 43 per cent of Democratic respondents said they preferred Clinton over other Democratic candidates in 2008, up from 39 percent in June. Obama tallied 22 per cent, down from 25 percent in June.

Those polled cited Clinton's experience and competence highest among her positive attributes.

Obama, a senator from Illinois, said in remarks prepared for a late-morning speech in Washington that if elected in November 2008, he would make hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid to Pakistan conditional.

''I would make our conditions clear: Pakistan must make substantial progress in closing down the training camps, evicting foreign fighters, and preventing the Taliban from using Pakistan as a staging area for attacks in Afghanistan,'' Obama said.

IRAN AND AFGHANISTAN Obama also criticized President George W Bush's emphasis on al Qaeda in Iraq and said as president he would end the war in Iraq and refocus efforts on the al Qaeda threat in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

''The president would have us believe that every bomb in Baghdad is part of al Qaeda's war against us, not an Iraqi civil war. He elevates al Qaeda in Iraq - which didn't exist before our invasion - and overlooks the people who hit us on 9/11, who are training new recruits in Pakistan,'' Obama said.

He said that ''because of a war in Iraq that should never have been authorized and should never have been waged, we are now less safe than we were before 9/11.'' Obama said if elected he would deploy at least two additional brigades to Afghanistan to re-enforce U.S.

counter-terrorism operations and support NATO's efforts against the Taliban.

''We must not, however, repeat the mistakes of Iraq. The solution in Afghanistan is not just military - it is political and economic. As president, I would increase our non-military aid by 1 billion dollars,'' Obama said.

Obama's position on the Pakistani threat put him in line with Bush, whose homeland security director, Fran Townsend, said last month that ''if we had actionable targets anywhere in the world, putting aside whether it was Pakistan or anyplace else, we would pursue those targets.'' REUTERS ARB VV1950