Pakistan: No foreigners will hunt bin Laden

NEW YORK - Pakistan's top diplomat said yesterday that there are no U.S. or other foreign military personnel on the hunt for Osama bin Laden in his nation, and none will be allowed in to search for the al-Qaeda leader.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said his nation's new government had ruled out such military operations, covert or otherwise, to catch militants.

"Our government's policy is that our troops, paramilitary forces and our regular forces are deployed in sufficient numbers. They are capable of taking action there. And any foreign intrusion would be counterproductive," he said. "People will not accept it. Questions of sovereignty come in."

The United States has grown increasingly frustrated as al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other militants thrive in Pakistan's remote areas and in neighboring Afghanistan, and has offered U.S. troops to strike at terror networks. Critics in Washington also have expressed frustration with the new Pakistani government's pursuit of peace deals with tribes in the region. Bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere in the Afghan-Pakistan border region.

Tension between the United States and Pakistan have been high after Pakistan said U.S. aircraft killed 11 of its soldiers at a border post in June. U.S. officials have said coalition aircraft dropped bombs during a clash with militants.

Qureshi said he tried to reassure Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at their meeting Friday that his government was doing everything it could to combat militants in lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Pakistan and Afghanistan regularly exchange criticism about not doing more to fight extremists operating along their long, remote, mountainous border that is seen by the United States as crucial to stopping terrorism.

Qureshi also met Thursday with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who agreed to Pakistan's request to establish an independent commission that will investigate the killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Qureshi acknowledged yesterday that "there are some infiltrations" still occurring, but there are no covert U.S. military operations trying to catch al-Qaeda figures and its chief, Taliban members or any other suspected militants.

"There are none," he said. "It will create such an anti-U.S. feeling in Pakistan that I would say would mar the atmosphere of cooperation that exists between us."

Qureshi described Pakistan's counterterrorism as a "grassroots" approach.

"Our strategy is that the military option alone is not enough," he said. "This war has to be fought besides the armies, with the help of the people, by winning hearts and minds."

Adm. Mike Mullen,

the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Pakistan yesterday on

a surprise one-day trip.

During his stop

in Pakistan, Mullen met President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, national security adviser Mehmood Ali Durrani, and Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, the army chief of staff, said Mullen's spokesman, Capt. John Kirby.

Mullen discussed

an array

of security issues, in particular his growing concern over the surge of insurgents across the border with Afghanistan.

Also yesterday,

a militant ambush and subsequent shoot-out killed at least six security forces and three insurgents in Pakistan's northwest, police said.

- Associated Press