US wants comprehensive revamp of Pakistan's ISI

Islamabad, Aug 3 : The Bush Administration is demanding a comprehensive revamp of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) before Washington resumes full intelligence cooperation with Pakistan, a high-level European defence official in Islamabad has said.

US military, for the past four months, has routinely withheld advanced information from Pakistani authorities on attacks carried out in tribal areas targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects, for the fear of information getting leaked to militants, the official added.

In the latest secret operation, Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, also known as Abu Khabab al-Masri - a leading Qaeda chemical and biological weapons expert was killed in a US missile strike on early Monday morning at a remote location in Waziristan region.

"Information of this attack was shared very late with Pakistan. This was a case where the US did not want to alert the Pakistanis in advance because of concerns over information leaks," said the European official.

The revelation on the Bush Administration's toughening stance on its long-time ally in the war against terror came as Pakistani officials angrily denied a newspaper report that its intelligence service helped to plan bombing of India's Embassy in Kabul that killed at least 41 people.

The New York Times reported in its Friday's editions that American intelligence agencies had concluded that members of the ISI were involved in the July 7 attack in the Afghan capital.

ANI