Powell to ask Pak. to deny facilities to terrorists

WASHINGTON, OCT. 12. The U.S. State Department has indicated that Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, during his visit to Pakistan will ask Islamabad to deny facilities for terrorist groups to operate and dissuade them from resorting to violence and turn to negotiations.

``We have asked the parties in the region to use their influence wherever possible, to deny facilities to make it more difficult for terrorist groups to operate, and we have asked them to use their influence to try to get groups to refrain from violence and seek political solutions so that, I assume, would continue to be part of our message,'' the U.S. State Department spokesman, Mr. Richard Boucher said.

``The U.S. has all along tried to work with all the parties in that region to encourage them to deal with each other, to encourage them to act with restraint, to encourage them to take steps to calm the tension. We have always done that; we will continue to do that. We welcome the meetings that they had earlier this year; we welcome the phone calls of the last few days, which we see as steps designed to do that,'' Mr. Boucher said in apparent references to the Agra summit and last week's telephonic talk between the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Pakistan President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

- PTI

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