Clinton arrives in Pakistan

Oct 20, 2011, 15:37 GMT

Islamabad - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Pakistan late Thursday after talks with Afghan leadership on the security situation along the Pakistani-Afghan border.

'She has arrived in Pakistan from Afghanistan,' an official from Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said. Clinton would hold meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Friday.

Clinton's visit, her second this year, comes at a time when Pakistan-US relations are strained with increasing pressure from Washington on Islamabad to act against the Haqqani militant network, an Afghanistan-based Taliban group that has carried out lethal attacks inside Kabul recently.

US officials have directly pointed a finger at Pakistani intelligence agencies, accusing them of supporting the Haqqani network. Pakistan said it has been unable to take on the militants because its forces are overstretched due to operations against the Taliban and al-Qaeda elsewhere in north-west Pakistan.

Amid the tensions, US and Afghan forces have launched an operation in the Afghan province of Khost along the border with North Waziristan, one of the seven districts in Pakistan's tribal region, where the Haqqani network has bases.

'We think that Clinton's visit is very crucial in the current situation,' a Pakistani official said Thursday. 'Both sides will listen to each other with sympathy, and we are hopeful that things will improve.'

He added that CIA chief David Petraeus and General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, would join Clinton in her talks in Islamabad.

In Afghanistan, Clinton urged Pakistan and Afghanistan to be united in efforts against the Islamist insurgency and in the reconciliation process with Taliban.

Read more about US