'Clinton to ask Pak to reduce LoC tension'

ISLAMABAD, MARCH 20. The U.S. President, Mr. Bill Clinton, during his visit here on March 25, will urge Pakistan to bring the temperature down on the Line of Control by discouraging militants from entering Jammu and Kashmir, the first time Washington will make a summit-level request to Islamabad on the subject, official and western diplomatic sources here said.

Mr. Clinton, in his expected meeting with Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, will also ask Islamabad to make a ``firm announcement'' to ``officially ban'' the militant Harkat-ul-Mujahideen outfit and curtail the activities of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Hizbul Mujahideen, the sources were quoted as saying by The News daily today.

He will further demand steps to ``force'' the Taliban to expel the terrorist leader, Osama Bin Laden, from Afghanistan and shut down all militant training camps in the mountainous country, they said.

Pakistan will also be asked to announce the schedule for the election process to bring back democracy, they added.

``The U.S. has joined voices within Pakistan, such as that of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, which has rejected the holding of local bodies elections as a substitute for national elections,'' the paper said quoting the sources.

Among other things, Mr. Clinton would ask Pakistan to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and express readiness to enter a multilateral moratorium on the production of fissile material in the country, the paper said.

- PTI

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