Madeleine Albright visits Pakistan

Madeleine Albright visits Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (Reuters): Anti-terrorist measures will be high on the agenda when U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrives in Pakistan today, two days after the bodies of four American oilmen killed in an ambush were flown home.

Albright, the first secretary of state to visit here since 1983, will bring renewed American focus to a country suffering poverty at home, war in Afghanistan and conflict with India over the disputed province of Kashmir.

She had been expected in the Pakistan capital last night but U.S. officials said she would not now arrive until this afternoon as she had rescheduled her itinerary to include several Gulf capitals linked to the crisis over Iraq.

Tight security is expected when Albright lands in Islamabad, just days after her department warned Americans of possible revenge attacks for the death sentence passed on a Pakistani convicted of killing two CIA employees.

Pakistani officials have played down speculation linking an attack in Karachi last Wednesday, in which four Union Texas Petroleum employees died, to the conviction of Mir Aimal Kasi for the murder of two Central Intelligence Agency staff in 1993.

But they said the attack, the first on foreign staff of a U.S. multinational here, was a botched attempt to wreck Albright's visit and one by President Bill Clinton which is penciled in for early next year.

Pakistani officials declined to discuss specific security arrangements. "You cannot expect me to give you the details of those precautions," Tariq Altaf, Foreign Ministry spokesman, told a news conference.

"But we have taken all precautions within our powers and I believe the American side are satisfied with those," he said. Officials at the U.S. embassy in Islamabad said cooperation between Washington and Islamabad on anti-terrorism would figure in talks with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Gohur Ayan Khan.

U.S. officials said in Washington last Friday that Albright was expected to make a major push during her meeting with Khan and Sharif to encourage peace efforts in neighboring Afghanistan where the Taleban militia is fighting an opposition alliance.

The Taleban control two thirds of Afghanistan but are recognized as the government in Kabul only by Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. "The discussions will focus on the entire range of bilateral matters as well as regional and global issues of mutual interest, particularly Kashmir and Afghanistan," Altaf said.

Two of three wars fought by Pakistan and India have been over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir and both are considered capable of making nuclear bombs.

U.S. embassy officials said nuclear non-proliferation was an important aspect of United States policy in the region and Albright was expected to discuss it with Pakistani leaders.

Pakistani officials say Albright is expected to sign three accords on bilateral cooperation and pave the way for a Clinton visit to Pakistan in early 1998.

But the timing of her arrival in Pakistan is also marked by a new crisis facing Sharif's nine-month old government on the domestic front.

Today, Sharif will become the first serving Pakistani prime minister to appear in the Supreme Court in a contempt of court proceeding against him and 11 others.