ISLAMABAD, MARCH 28: Amidst indications that Pakistan’s new government will review support for the US-led war on terror, a top American official today said the problem should be tackled through a combination of military means and economic development programmes.

“I think we all want to move together to help Pakistan to stabilise, to help Pakistanis be safe and have economic opportunity and make Pakistan a success as a democratic society,” US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher told a joint news conference with Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

The US recognises that terrorism and extremism should be dealt with “not only with military means when necessary but also by providing education and economic opportunity”, he said.

Boucher said he had told Pakistani leaders that “the US wants to support democracy, a democratic government in Pakistan and the people as they move forward”. He also made it clear that the change of government would not affect US aid for Pakistan.

A variety of programmes will be worked out with the government of Pakistan in this regard, Boucher said.

Two of the PPP’s key allies in the new coalition government the PML-N and Awami National Party have said they favour a dialogue with militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and a rolling back of the military operations launched by the previous regime under President Pervez Musharraf’s leadership.

However, US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte had on Thursday warned the Pakistan government against initiating dialogue with “irreconcilable elements” like Al Qaeda and Taliban.

Boucher said, “We all know there are some very dangerous people who are up there, people who are plotting and planning attacks on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Europe, the US and other places in the world.

“Somehow, we all need to deal with that. We are doing this in Afghanistan and we want to work with the Pakistani government as well as partners to make the people of all our countries safer.”

The war on terror figured in Boucher’s meetings on Friday with ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Zardari.

Khan told Boucher that the ANP favoured using jirgas or tribal councils for talks with the militants.

Asked by reporters to elaborate on the PPP’s plans to conduct the war on terror according to its own definition, Zardari said the country was capable of protecting its sovereignty.

“The PPP’s definition is the people’s definition that it is Pakistan’s war as much as anybody else’s. It may have been anybody’s war yesterday or the day before but today it is in our streets in Lahore and Karachi and Islamabad,” Zardari said.