US-Pakistan pot boils, India says talk it out

Adding more fuel to the US-Pakistan stalemate that has a direct bearing on India, secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Thursday warned Pakistan that it will face serious consequences if it continues to give safe havens to extremist outfits who target Afghans and Americans. Jayanth Jacob reports.

Adding more fuel to the US-Pakistan stalemate that has a direct bearing on India, secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Thursday warned Pakistan that it will face serious consequences if it continues to give safe havens to extremist outfits who target Afghans and Americans.

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Refusing to fish in troubled waters, India urged "two friendly powers," to resolve their differences across the table warning of the serious consequences of anything that upsets the region.

Indian comments come in the wake of the show-down between the US and Pakistan intensifies and efforts are being made to have a high-level meeting India-Pakistan meeting on the sidelines of Saarc meeting in Maldives next month, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be attending from November 9 to 12 and efforts are on for a possible meeting between Singh and his Pakistan counterpart, Yusuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the meet, sources told HT.

"Efforts are for a meeting. But cannot say more now," said a senior official.

Hilary's warning came in from Kabul, in a further high-level diplomatic showdown, a day after Pakistan flexing its nuclear status and warning the Americans against they should have to think "ten times" before launching attacks against militants in the North Waziristan tribal region as Pakistan is not an Iraq or Afghanistan.

The Haqqani network is based in this area. Hillary said terrorists are on both sides of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"No one should be in any way mistaken about allowing this to continue without paying a very big price," Clinton said in Kabul before leaving for Pakistan, leading a powerful delegation consisting the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin E Dempsey, and the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, David H Petraeus.