International

U.S. may reduce staff strength in Pak.

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

Washington June 15. The U.S. has not been able to gather hard evidence on which group was behind the bombing near its consulate in Karachi even as officials from this country teamed up with their Pakistani counterparts to get to the bottom of the incident, in which at least 10 persons were killed.

The State Department is said to be considering if additional cuts would have to be made in the staff strength at its embassy and consulates in Pakistan, at the same time making the point that the diplomatic presence is already down to the bare minimum. "Our staffing in Islamabad at our embassy and at our three consulates in Pakistan was already down to emergency levels. That means that non-emergency personnel and all of the embassy community dependants had already left Pakistan," the State Department's Deputy Spokesman, Philip Reeker, said on Friday.

He said the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, who called the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, discussed further cooperation in the struggle against extremists. "We'll continue to work with the Pakistani authorities on the investigation of this, as well as on joint work together against terrorism," Mr. Reeker said.

On Friday, the U.S. President, George Bush, stressed that the bomb attack would by no means change the agenda on the terrorism front. "These people, if they think they're going to intimidate the U.S., they don't understand the United States of America," he told presspersons in Houston.

Bush calls Blair

Meanwhile, the White House announced that Mr. Bush called the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, from Air Force One and discussed the current tensions between India and Pakistan and the efforts to ease them. The White House Deputy Spokesman, Scot McClellan, said Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair spoke for about 10 to 15 minutes and also discussed West Asia and the upcoming summit of the Leaders of the Group of Eight.

In another development, the Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation that brings the U.S. into compliance with two international counter-terrorism treaties — on easing extradition of bombing suspects and on the harmonisation of laws against financing of terrorist activities.

"If anyone needed a reminder why implementing these treaties is important, the horrific car bombing outside the U.S. Consulate in Karachi is it," the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy, said.

The legislation cleared the Senate by a vote of 83 to 1 and will now go to the House of Representatives again before heading to the White House for the President's signature.

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