WASHINGTON, May 21: Pakistan's foreign minister Gohar Ayub Khan's United States visit is turning out to be largely fruitless in terms of immediate results, with Washington giving him a short hearing on two key items on his agenda: Kashmir and the issue of the sequestered F-16.

Instead, top administration officials asked him for a ``full accounting'' of what happened to the kidnapped American hostage Donald Hutchings, questioned him about the precipitous economic situation in Pakistan, and asked Islamabad to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Khan also made little progress on moving the administration on the F-16 issue and was drawn into giving his take on the Afghan situation, Pakistan's nuclear and missile proliferation, and its problems in the fight against drugs and terrorism.

Despite the fervid attempts of the minister -- and some reporters -- in search of a story to ratchet up the Kashmir issue, there was no perceptible change in the US position aside from a token assertion by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that she and the administration would take greater interest in the issue.

When one wheedling reporter praised her father's book on Kashmir and asked if she intended to send a troubleshooter or take an initiative to resolve the issue at a brief pow-wow, Albright accepted the compliment (``I am always pleased to hear things about my father... I am told by many people that his book is still the definitive book on the subject'') but said ``it obviously is very important for the parties themselves to engage in a dialogue''.

Albright's father Joseph Korbel was a Czech diplomat who served with the United Nations in Kashmir and wrote a book called Danger in Kashmir.

At a more expansive briefing later, her spokesman Nicholas Burns said Albright gave the Pakistan foreign minister a very clear sense that the US was behind this process of reconciliation (between India and Pakistan) and would offer its goods offices to help them further this progress. ``But they seem fully capable of proceeding on their own at this point,'' he added.

Pakistan has long sought US intervention in the Kashmir dispute. India has said it is a bilateral issue and has brooked no interference.

Just how short a shrift Kashmir got in the 45-minute one-on-one talk was evident in Burns' characterisation that there was a ``brief discussion'' of Kashmir. ``It was not an extensive discussion, but a brief one in terms that would not surprise you.'' Instead, his briefing suggested that plenty of time was devoted to US-Pakistan issues. He said the two officials discussed the arrest of Pakistani military officials in New York on drug smuggling charges and the retaliatory arrest in Karachi of a US Drug Enforcement Agency official.

``We have agreed that we ought to work together cooperatively to try to resolve the atmosphere that produced these arrests and also make sure that we are cooperating fully in the fight against narcotics,'' he said about an issue that resulted in a nasty spat between Washington and Islamabad last week. The US also gave the minister a tough message on the kidnapping of hostages in Kashmir, seeking a ``full accounting''.

``There is a reward out for people who may have information about the fate of the hostages and we are determined to bring the kidnappers to justice once they can be found,'' Burns warned.

Earlier, Albright herself provided an indication of the direction the US wanted the talks to go by telling reporters that she was going to ask Foreign Minister Khan to brief her -- besides the Indo-Pak talks -- on the new government's efforts toward economic stabilisation and economic discipline.

``I hope to discuss further cooperation in pursuit of common interests, including counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism efforts. I will be telling the Foreign Minister of our concern over continued fighting in Afghanistan and our support for UN mediation there, and our hope for a broadly representative government to emerge in Afghanistan,'' she said.

Khan's effort to secure a commitment or rather fulfill a commitment made to the previous Bhutto regime to resolve the F-16 dispute also bore no immediate results. Albright repeated that the US would ``continue to make a good faith effort on it''.

Spokesman Burns later said the administration remained committed formally to the sale of F-16s to Indonesia and, at some point, it would like to be able to move forward.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.