The Bush Administration has said that stabilising Pakistan should be a top foreign policy priority for the incoming Obama Government.

“The Taliban remain a serious threat. Its fighters have found safe haven across the border in Pakistan,” US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley said in an address to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a public policy research institute based in Washington.

“If the extremists succeed in destabilising Pakistan, the chaos will threaten peace and progress throughout the region,” said Hadley, who earlier told the Wall Street Journal that Pakistan needs to be the top foreign policy priority for the upcoming Obama Administration. “So stabilising Pakistan must be a first priority for the new Administration — as it has been one of ours,” he stressed.

Hadley said the Bush Administration has recognised that Pakistan faces enormous economic, political and security challenges. “But we also understand that Pakistan has a better chance of successfully meeting these challenges with a freely elected democratic government. “And today, Pakistan has such a Government thanks in no small part to President Bush’s skillful diplomacy”, he observed.