Zardari's India visit very constructive: US

Washington, Apr 6: Terming Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's scheduled visit to India as "very constructive", US has said it does not want any new strains in Indo-Pak ties over the USD 10 million bounty offered by it for LeT founder Hafiz Saeed.

"We think his (Zardari) visit to India actually is very constructive, and we're all for it," State Department spokesperson Mark Toner told reporters here. Zardari is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over lunch in New Delhi on Apr 8 before making a private visit to the 13th century Sufi shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer.

"We certainly want to see... to us, it's a win-win situation when Pakistan and India are engaging in dialogue, are talking to each other, and are building better cooperation," Toner said. America, he said, does not want the recent announcement of the bounty on Saeed to have any affect on the meeting between Zardari and Singh.

"We certainly don't want it to impact on his visit to India," he said. Saeed is wanted over the bloody 2008 siege of Mumbai that killed 166 people including six Americans. The Defa-e-Pakistan Council, a conglomerate of over 40 hardline and extremist groups, on Thursday asked Zardari to cancel his trip to India to protest the USD 10 million bounty offered by the US for Saeed.

PTI