US backs Pakistan military drive

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/south_asia/6900215.stm

Version 0 of 1.

The United States says it fully supports Pakistan's renewed drive to crush Islamic militants operating in the north-west of the country.

President George W Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, backed President Pervez Musharraf's move to send more troops to the region.

Nearly 80 people have been killed in attacks in the past two days.

Militant Islamists have called for a holy war to avenge the storming of a radical mosque in Islamabad last week.

"We have seen the Taleban pooling, planning and training in the north-west territories in Pakistan. There was an agreement with the tribal chiefs that President Musharraf did. It is not working the way he wanted, it is not working the way we want it," Mr Hadley said.

The national security adviser spent a busy Sunday, giving interviews to various television networks in the US.

Dissatisfied

In an interview with CNN, Mr Hadley said, "He [President Musharraf] has a safe haven problem in an area of his country where Pakistan's central government has really not been present for decades or even generations."

In another interview on Fox News, Mr Hadley said the US was dissatisfied with Gen Musharraf's policies.

Mr Hadley says Pakistan needs to do more"The action has, at this point, not been adequate, not effective. He's doing more. We are urging him to do more, and we're providing our full support to what he's contemplating."

Also on Sunday, pro-Taleban militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan region announced they were scrapping their truce with the Musharraf government amid growing tension in the area.

Last September's truce had ended two years of clashes and was aimed at stopping cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.

In a statement issued in Miranshah town on Sunday, the militants accused the government of breaking the agreement.

It came as Pakistan deployed more troops in the area, fearing "holy war" after the storming of the militant Red Mosque last week left 102 dead.

The dead included 11 soldiers and an as yet unknown number of militants and their hostages.

Many of the militants in the Red Mosque complex were thought to have come from the north-west, and the government has sent thousands of new troops to the region fearing there could be a new "holy war" in revenge.

Pakistani officials say the weekend's attacks could be linked to the Red Mosque siege.

President Musharraf last week vowed to root out extremists "from every corner of the country".